mac    iiMn.TMwaByi 


* 


A 


LITTERS 


AN  OFFICER  IN  THE  ARMY; 


PROPOSING 


CONSTITUTIONAL  REFORM 


CONFEDERATE  (iOVELNMEXT 


AFTER  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  PRESENT  WAR. 


A  SUPPLEMENT 


THE     LOST     rRINCIPI  E 


BY  JOHN   SCOTT, 

ill'    V  LUQOIER,   C.    B.    AIvMY, 

,VUTH()K  OF  "THE  LOST  l*i:i  N(  'I  I  1. : 


n 


■t  walk  then  I  .11  vi.  10. 


"  There  is  a  great  differ*  n  arts  and  civil  affairs;  ai  lould  belike 

mines,  resounding  on  .'ill  sides  with  now  works,  and  further  progress;  but  it  is  not  good  t<>  try 
experiments  in  Spates,  except  the  necessity  1  e  urgent  or  the  utility  evident;  and  well  to  be- 
reformatiou  that  draweth  on  the  change,  and  not  the  desire  of  change  that 
tendeth  the  reformation." 


RICHMOND: 
A.   MORIIIS,   PUBLISHER, 

1864. 


&■> 


LETTERS 


*\ 


AN  OFFICER  IN  THE  ARMY; 

PROPOSING 

CONSTITUTIONAL  REFORM 

Iii  TnE 

CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT 

AFTER  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  PRESENT  WAR. 


A  SUPPLEMENT 


THE     LOST     PRINCIPLE, 


BY  JOHN   SCOTT, 

OF    FAUQUIER,  C.    S.  ARMY, 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  BQgT  ]'i;i.NCIPLE." 


"Stand  ye  in  the  ways,  and  sec,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  ivalk 
therein.    But  they  said,  We  will  not  walk  therein." — Jeremiah  vi.  16. 

"There  is  a  great  differ  m  arts  and  civil  affairs;  arts  and  sciences  should  be  like 
mines,  resounding  on  all  sides  with  new  works,  and  further  progress;  but  it  is  not  good  to  try 
experiment  :cepi  the  n ssity  be  argent  or  the  utility  evident;  and  well  to  be- 

ware thai  it  is  the  reformation  that  draweth  on  the  change,  and  not  the  desire  of  change  that 
pretendeth  the  reformation."— Bacon. 


RICHMOND: 

A.»MORRIS,   PUBLISHER. 

1864. 


<y 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1SG4,  by 

JOHN    SCOTT, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Confederate  States  for  the 

Eastern  District  of  Virginia. 


C.    H.    WTNNB,    PRINTER. 


int  rLUntno  WLLUiiiun 


DEDICATION. 


i 


This  perishable  memento,  as  a  testimonial  of  his  great  worth,  is  inscribed  to 
the  memory  of  my  dear  friend  and  cousin,  Captain  Thomas  Gordon  Pollock, 
a  native  of  Fauquier  county,  Virginia,  who  fell,  gallantly  fighting,  in  the  fearful 
assault  of  Pickett's  division  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  It  adds  to  the  anguish 
of  his  family  that  his  remains  were  never  recovered.    , 

r<ut  a  slmrt  time  before  the  commencement  of  the  war,  he  had  removed  to 
the  State  of  Louisiana  to  prosecute  the  profession  of  law,  and  was  very  soon 
invited  into  a  distinguished  ami  lucrative  copartnership.  lie  was  among  the 
foremost  of  the  chivalrous  spirits  of  that  gallant  State  in  accepting  the  gnge  of 
battle  and  defending  the  invaded  rights  of  his  country.  He  commenced  the 
military  life  as  orderly  sergeant  of  '-The  Shreveport  Grays,"  and  at  the  end  of 
a  short  time,  by  his  industry  and  capacity,  had  mastered  the  infantry  tactics 
both  in  their  principles  and  details.  Sergeant  Pollock  accompanied  his  regi- 
ment to  Fort  Tickens  and  afterwards  to  Virginia.  Upon  his  arrival  in  Pvich- 
mond,  where  his  character  and  abilities  were  well  understood,  he  was  tendered 
a  captain's  commission  in  "The  Wise  Legion,"  with  which  he  served  with 
credit  in  West  Virginia.  Captain  Pollock  was  subsequently  assistant  adjutant 
general  to  Brig.  General  Starke,  and  was  from  that  position  promoted  to  the 
staff  of  General  Lee.  At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Brig.  General  Kemper,  of 
Pickett's  division,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  his  extraordinary  qualifica- 
tions, Captain  Pollock  was  transferred  to  his  brigade,  where  he  was  conspicu- 
ous for  the  extent  of  his  executive  capacity.  He  was  in  many  6f  the  great 
battles  of  Virginia,  and  in  those^around  Richmond  conducted  himself  with  the 
courage  of  a  soldier.  At  one  period,  I  associated  ou  terms  of  intimacy  with 
Captain  Pollock,  and  thus  was  made  acquainted  with  his  superior  merits. 
VV,JJ  '  '"'ii  and  well  nurtured,  Life  had  opened  upon  him  with  her  brightest 

.    .,        m/he  had  already  surrounded  himself  with  a  large  circle  of  attached 
smues,  -"-<•'  ° 

f  •  d.  Hi  hau"  J"8*  passed  the  line  which  separates  youth  from  manhood, 
pud  was  the  pri/te  *nd  solace  of  his  honored  father,  when  he  was  swept  into  the 
remorseless  grave.  But  the  Omnipotent  may  have  only  called  him  hence  for 
higher  purposes,  to  another  sphere — perhaps  to  one  of  those  fair  stars  that 
nightly  look  upon  us. 

With  every  gift  and  grace  adorned,  Captain  Pollock  shone  conspicuous  among 
the  noble  band  of  youthful  heroes  whom  the  Mothers  of  the  South,  with  a 
Spartan  heroism  and  the  truest  Christian  fortitude,  devoted  to  the  Independence 


?72Z  I  7 


IV  DEDICATION. 

of  their  country.  When  the  constellation  of  pence,  with  effulgent  beam,  again 
irradiates  this  land,  and  amid  (swelling  the  anthems  high  column  is  raised  to 
the  victorious  God,  this  costly  sacrifice  will  not  be  forgotten. 

"Young  Lycidas  is  deed,  dead  ere  his  prime, 
Young  Lycidan,  and  has  not  left  his  peer. 
Be  must  not  tlote  u|H)ii  his  watery  liier 

pt,  ami  welter  in  the  parching  wind, 
Without  ili"  meed  ol  Borne  mi 

Bo  i  /^ 

With  lucky  words  bvor  my  destined  urn, 
Ami  as  he  passes  turn 
Ami  bid  fair  peaoe  be  to  my  sable  shroud. 
For  we  wore  nurst  upon  the  self-eame  hill, 
Fed  the  same  flock  by  fountain,  shade  and  rill." 

The  Author. 


INTRODUCTORY, 


Dover,  Goochland  Co.,  Va., 

l'2th  January,  1864. 
To  Brij.  Gen.  J.VMES   L.  KeMPER, 

P.   A.   C.  S.: 

Dear  Sir  : 

In  addresslog  to  you  the  following  series  of  letters, 
I  feel  that  I  am  not  actiDg  without  sufficient  warrant.  The  subjects 
discussed  are  essentially  of  the  highest  importance,  and  in  relation  to 
our  own  affairs  give  rise  to  questions,  the  practical  decision  of  which 
must  deeply  affect  the  value  and  stability  of  our  political  institutions. 
To  such  themes  I  can  with  confidence  invite  the  attention  of  one  whose 
former  distinction  in  the  politics  of  Virginia  and  present 'honorable 
position  in  the  Confederate  army  give  assurance  of  his  earnest  interest 
in  all  that  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  State  and  the  Confederacy. 

The  matter  of  these  letter-,  so  hastily  and  unskilfully  wrought,  was 
designed  to  conclude  a  small  volume  published  before  the  war.  There 
the  structure  of  the  Legislative  department  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, together  with  some  account  of  its  origin,  was  considered, 
whilst  here  your  attention  is  invited  to  the  Executive.  The  precipitation 
with  which  the  volume  alluded  to  was  prepared  for  the  press,  prevented 
me  from  doing  then  what  I  do  now. 

Upon  resuming  the  subject  thus  left  incomplete,  I  soon  discovered 
that  the  contracted  limits  of  a  furlough  would  be  insufficient  for  the 
execution  of  the  design,  and  that  the  task  must  be  abandoned  or 
abridged.  Perhaps  not  wisely,  the  latter  alternative  was  adopted;  for 
I  have  thought  it  well  to  bring  a  kid,  if  I  could  not  sacrifice  an  hundred 
bulls.  Haste  is  not  the  best  helpmate  of  composition,  but  rather  a 
retired  leisure,  and  errors,  though  none  serious  it  is  trusted,  may  have 
crept  in.  Even  a  little  time  for  reflection  and  a  more  careful  revision, 
without  seeking  to  enlarge  its  plan,  would  have  enabled  me  at  once  to 
condense  and  amplify  the  essay  and  relieve  it  of  many  blemishes  and 
disfigurements. 

The  lack  of  time  I  the  more  regret,  as  established  principles  have 
beeu  arraigned  and  opinions  questioned,  which  in  our  times,  amongst 
us  at  least,  have  not  been  questioned  before.  He  who  assails  an  adver- 
sary so  formidable,  must  needs  put  all  his  armor  on;  not  the  corslet 
and  shield  only,  but  the  lance  and  the  sword.  It  is  cheering,  however, 
to  one  who  presumptuously  breaks  in  upon  the  currtjpt  of  popular  opic 


J12X1  7 


0  INTRODUCTORY. 

ion,  to  know  tbat,  amid  the  heterogeneous  elements  which  compose 
ty,  there  are  always  generous  and  resolute  spirits  who  keep  their 
ears  open  for  even  the  lightest  whispers  of  truth,  and  who  abhor  error, 
however  surrounded  and  dignified,  as  the  worst  en<  my  of  mankind. 
These,  in  a  Republic,  may  be  called  the  sails  of  the  Ship  of  E 
with  perhaps  a  truer  similitude,  the  winds  which  agitate  the  gre:if 
of  human  opinion.      But  there  is  another  large  least 

influential,  who  hang  as  on  the  chariot  xsh-  iman 

•progress.  A  novelty  is  an  offence  unto  these  men.  In  the  wide  econ- 
omy of  the  universe  they  doubtless  have  their  use>  ;  for  the  great  Father 
who  created  the  deaf,  the  dumb  and  the  blind,  as  well  as  the  Bleeping 
miasmatic  pool,  created  them.  Let  us  not  then  quarrel  with  the  sup' 
dispensation,  but  in  charity  believe  that  their  intellectual  via  inertia 
may  be  necessary  as  ballast  to  keep  the  ship  from  rolling  in  rough 
weather. 

Harvey,  with  much  wit,  observed,  that  he  had  never  been  able  to  con- 
vince any  man  above  forty  years  old  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 
Parliamentary  government,  doubtless,  will  have  to  contend  with  that 
kind  of  obstruction.  In  this  country  we  have  all  learned  to  worship 
an  executive  throne;  and,  I  believe,  the  greatest  difficulty  in  nature  is 
to  get  men  out  of  the  rut  of  an  old  opinion.  You  may  make  prog] 
with  the  young  men;  but  who  can  manage  the  forty-year-olds'/ 

It  was  my  purpose  to  have  examined  more  at  large  and  with  a  greater 
breadth  of  example,  the  operations  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  in  order  the  more  distinctly  and  satisfactorily  to  explain  the 
constant  and  unavoidable  tendency  to  conflict,  between  the  several 
departments  among  which,  according  to  that  political  arrangement, 
power  is  distributed.;  and  at  greater  length  to  have  scrutinized  the 
action  and  traced  the  turbulent  aud  painful  history  of  mixed  monarchy, 
the  legacy  of  medheval  to  modem  Europe;  but  at  a  still  greater  length 
and  with  greater  fullness  to  have  followed  the  course  of  the  memorable 
struggle  between  the  Crown  aud  Parliament,  which,  after  a  long  chain 
of  disasters,  resulted  in  placing  the  British  Constitution  on  its  present 
liberal  aud  impregnable  basis.  For  I  am  well  aware  that  particular 
examples,  with  the  reader  of  discernment,  carry  a  greater  weight  than 
any  announcement  of  general  results.  Ancient  authors,  too,  shed  a 
strong  light  on  the  subject' before  me;  for  mixed  government,  though 
under  a  different  development,  is  an  heirloom  of  antiquity.  The  mate- 
rials were  ample  and  lay  near  at  hand,  but  I  could  not  more  than  touch 
them.     Those  treasures  were  not  heaped  for  me. 

I  own,  General,  it  would  be  a  great  consolation  to  me,  if  the  inquisi- 
tive and  able  minds  of  the  army  could  all  be  attracted  to  the  subject 
here  so  rudely  and#  imperfectly  handled;  for,  after  vindicating  by  their 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

valor  and  heroic  constancy*  the  independence  of  their  country,  the 
army  will  still  owe  it  the  high  moral  duty  of  providing  it  with  the  ines- 
timable blessing  of  a  free,  stable  government.  Without  this  crowning 
benefit,  the  victory  will  be  but  .half  won,  or  rather  its  precious  fruits 
will  be  left  to  turn  to  ashes  in  our  mouths.  What  though  we  be  rescued 
from  an  oppressive  foreign  domination,  if  we  be  left- a  prey  to  angry 
and  barking  factions  ?  or  be  compelled,  as  a  miserable  refuge,  to  cast 
ourselves  at  the  feet  of  a  domestic  tyrant?  To  preserve  themselves  and 
their  country  from  those  dreadful  evils,  all  men  look,  and  look  not  with- 
out the  solace  of  hope,  to  the  army  in  its  blended  military  and  civic 
characters. 

The  army  contains  within  its  ample  bosom  many  an  orator  and  states- 
man qualified  to  lead  a  great  people  along  the  heights  of  honor  and 
renown,  trained  albeit  in  the  rough,  stern,  school  of  the  camp.  For 
war,  even  this  war,  with  its  ghastly  attendants,  Slaughter  and  Famine, 
will  not  be  destitute  of  advantages  to  individual  and  national  character. 
In  this  life  nothing  is  wholly  good,  and  nothing  altogether  evil,  that 
which  seemed  unmixed  evil  being  sometimes  found  to  cover  the  largest 
good;  and  thus  even  War,  that  frequent  messenger  of  God's  wrath,  is 
often  charged  with  the  evident  tokens  of  divine  love.  Under  bis  rough 
discipline,  character  is  invigorated,  genius  enkindled,  enterprise  and 
talent  developed,  and  the  slumbering  energies  of  a  nation  aroused;  aud 
through  all  aud  over  all,  strengthening  and  binding  together  these  con- 
stituents of  individual  excellence  and  national  greatness,  an  enduring 
constancy  of  purpose  has  its  hardy  growth — that  "patient  continuance 
in  well-doing,''  without  which  nothing  excellent  or  great  was  ever 
wrought  by  man  or  nation. i 

*  "Soldiers,  your  wants  are  great;  every  measure  is  taken  to  supply  them. 
The  first  quality  of  the  poldier  is  patient  endurance  of  fatigue  and  privation; 
valor  is  but  a  secondary  virtue.  Several  corps  have  quitted  their  positions; 
they  have  been  deaf  to  the  voice  of  their  officers  ;  the  seventeenth  light  demi- 
brigade  is  of  this  number.  Are,  then,  the  heroes  of  Castiglione,  of  Rivoli, 
of  Neumark,  no  more?  They  would  rather  have  perished  than  have  deserted 
their  colors;  they  would  have  called  their  young  comrades  back  to  honor  and 
duty.  Soldiers,  do  y^u  complain  that  your  rations  have  not  been  regularly 
distributed?  What  would  you  have  done,  if,  like  the  fourth  and  twenty-second 
light  demi-brigades,  or  the  eighteenth  and  thirty  second  of  the  line,  you  had 
found  yourselves  in  the  midst  of  the  Desert,  without  bread  or  water,  subsisting 
on  horses  and  camels?  Victory  u-ill  give  ns  bread,  said  they." — Nai'Olv.ox's 
Address  to  the  Soldiers  of  / 

•)■  "No  body  can  be  healthful  without  exercise,  neither  natural  body  nor 
politic  ;  and,  certainly,  to  a  kingdom  or  estate  a  just  and  honorable  war  is  true 
exercise.  A  civil  war  is  like  the  heat  of  a  fever  ;  but  a  foreign  war  is  like  the 
heat  of  exercise,  and  serveth  to  keep  the  body  in  health;  for  in  a  slothful  peace, 
both  courages  will  effeminate  aud  manners  corrupt." — Bacon. 


8  INTRODUCTORY. 

Let  not  despondent  spirits  deem  it  premature  to  call  the  thoughts  of 
tin-  army  to  a  plan  of  government  for  "  the  so-called  Confederate  States/' 

but  rather  let  this  proof  of  confidence  cheer  their  drooping  hearts.  Let 
it  t.  acli  enemies  and  neutrals  that,  though  oppn  ssed  with  numbers,  we 
nothing  doubt  the  event,  but  are  as  confident  as  that  audacious  Roman, 
who,  when  Hannibal  was  at  the  city  gates,  purchased,  for  its  full  value 
in  gold,  the  field  in  which  his  army  was  oamped.  Great  reverses  may 
be  iu  store  for  our  arms,  but  there  will  yet  remain,  at  the  hearts  of  our 
le,  the  strung  principle  of  national  liberty,  imperishable  amid  the 
perishable  armies  of  our  patriots,  inconsumable  in  the  conflagration  of 
our  cities.  Our  trust  in  the  Almighty  arm  will  remain  unshaken;  for, 
iu  the  language  of  a  noble  historian,  we  know  "  Providence  reserves  to 
itself  various  means,  by  which  the  bonds  of  the  oppressor  may  be 
broken;  and  it  is  not  for  human  sagacity  to  anticipate,  whether  the 
army  of  a  conqueror  shall  moulder  in  the  unwholesome  marshes  of 
Home,  or  stiffen  with  frost  in  a  Russian  winter." 

I  will  not  consume  your  time  with  useless  explanations  and  excuses 
for  this  hasty  production.  You  will,  I  trust,  need  no  apology,  and  the 
public,  I  know,  would  accept  none  for  a  clumsy  performance. 

In  this  solitary  yet  delightful  retreat,  the  hours,  each  belonging  to 
the  "same  quiet  sisterhood,"  have  passed  so  softly,  as  to  leave  no  foot- 
print behind.  The  last  of  the  solemn  procession  are  passing,  as  I  bid 
you  a  silent 

Adieu. 

John  Scott,  of  Fauquier, 

C.  S.  Army. 


LETTERS. 


LETTER  I. 


Lord  North  characterized  the  union  which  bound  the  American  Re- 
publics together,  as  a  mere  rope  of  sand.  How  great  was  his  mistake  ! 
It  has  proved  to  be  rather  a  cincture  of  fire,  than  so  dissoluble  a  bon  I.* 

The  present  sanguinary  contest  between  the  two  grand  divisions  of 
the  American  Union,  the  North  and  the  South,  as,  far  back  in  colonial 
annals,  they  were  called,  without  doubt  was  produced  by  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  as  practically  expounded  in  the  administration 
of  the  Government,  though  not  as  that  instrument  has  been  explained 
by  a  school  of  ingenious  statesmen.  Under  its  silent  yet  powerful  ope- 
ration, there  grew  up  in  the  North,  by  nature  far  the  least  favored  sec- 
tion, a  dominion  of  irresistible  strength,  which,  after  wielding  from  the 
beginning,  for  its  own  exclusive  advantage,  the  vast  legislative  authority 
of  the  Union,  boldly  seized  the  executive  office.  Flushed  with  a  pro- 
gressive success,  and  fortified  in  the  supreme  control  of,  the  active  de- 
partments of  the  commqn  government,  which  drew  after  it,  according  to 
the  Federal  plan,  as  absolute  a  power  over  the  judiciary,  the  leaders  and 
exponents  of  Northern  policy  ill  concealed,  if  they  did  not  openly  pro- 
claim, the  intention  of  their  association  to  chauge  the  character  still 
farther  of  the  Government,  so  as  to  dispose  of  the  domestic  interests 
and  mould  the  domiciliary  institutions  of  the  southern  section  according 
to  their  pleasure.  The  constitution,  which  held  so  closely  together  the 
opposing  sections,  had  been  so  contrived  by  its  sage  architects,  as  to  in- 
spire these  extravagant  and  lawless  hopes,  and  to  allow,  if  not  to  invite, 
these  ambitious  designs.  Never  did  a  more  imminent  crisis  threaten  a 
free  people.  Hesitation  was  ruin,  and  no  other  course  was  left  to  the 
victim,  thus  devoted  to  the  infernal  gods,  than  to  appeal  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  their  ancestors,  and  withdraw  from  the  ill-starred  and  treacherou3 
association. 

In  accusing  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  fair-spoken  Constitution  of 

*  It  is  probable  that  bis  lordship  referred  to  the  Federal  Constitution  of  that 
day.  But  the  Union,  as  we  have  learned  greatly  to  our  cost,  was  stronger  than 
the  Constitution. 


10  LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER    IN  THE   ARMY. 

17V7,  as  the  cause  of  our  sorrows  ami  calamities,  as  a  monster,  which, 
in  its  rage  and  last,  has  devoured  whole  cities  and  plains,  I  have  euten  d, 
I  am  aware,  into  the  domain  of  controversy.  There  are  those  amongst 
us  who  still  reverence  that  constitution,  mixed  as  it  is  of  earth  and 
blood,  not  more  for  its  own  imagined  ]  ,  than  for  the  Banc 

hands  that  ma  le  it.  The  Constitution,  they  affirm,  was  not  in  fault, 
but  the  wickedness  and  frailty  of   man   ruined  all!      I)  '.ese 

are  in  the  right.  Had  man  been  perfect,  that  Constitution, 
or  any  Constitution,  would  have  operated  well.  ]5ut  fur  man  as  he  is,  the 
c  '.are  of  interest,  ambition,  fanaticism  and  the  other  dark  passions 
that  deprave  and  agitate  his  heart,  that  Constitution  was  a  cruel  d 
tion.  It  is  the  particular  province  of  a  well  male  constitution  to 
trol  the  vicious  propensities  of  man,  to  set  intere.-t  against  interest,  viee 
against  vice,  and,  like  a  skilful  musician,  out  of  the  disc  »rd  to  educe  har- 
mony. The  much  censured  Articles  of  Confederation  embodied  a  plan 
of  government  which  was  theoretically  good,  but  the  experiment  proved 
that  mankind  could  not  be  trusted  with  the  voluntary  performance  of  a 
constitutional  obligation.  It  is  a  truth  that  any  government  which  reads 
upon  the  virtues  of  the  people  only,  will  fail.  Their  evil  dispositions  as 
well  as  their  virtues  must  be  taken  iuto  the  account. 

There  is  a  test  of  the  value  of  things  which  is  our  fitting  guide  in 
judging  systems  of  government  as  well  as  characters  of  men  :  .1 
good  tree  bringeth  not  forth  corrupt. fruit ;  neither  doth  a  corrupt  tree 
bring  forth  good  fruit.  It  is  well  for  us  to  apply  this  divine  rule  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  its  legitimate  effects.  It  is  well 
for  us  to  know  what  is  the  true  character  of  that  instrument;  to  draw 
aside  or  more  rudely  to  tear  away  the  venerable  error  that  shrouds  the 
idol;  for,  with  superficial  changes,  we  have  now  that  Constitution,  with 
all  its  imperfections  on  its  head,  as  the  permanent  organic  law  of  this 
Confederacy;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  condition  of  the  country  or 
the  character  of  the  people  to  prevent  it  from  working  here,  i*  its  full 
fruition,  though  on  a  less  gigautic  scale,  the  same  disastrous  results — 
a  sectional  despotism,  secession,  war,  and  a  military  supremaoy. 

It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  any  close  political  uuion  could  havo 
been  long  maintained  between  two  nations  so  opposed  in  their  interests 
and  social  aud  political  tendencies  as  were  the  North  and  the  South  ;  but  a 
well  balanced  aud  skilful  organism  would  have  protracted  their  connex- 
ion, and  wheu  the  hour  of  separation  had  come,  would  have  enabled 
either  party  to  retire  from  the  copartnership  without  a  breach  of  amiea- 
ble  relations.  That  would  have  been  a  noble  solution  of  a  prejudieii1 
and  distasteful  union,  a  provision  for  which  posterity,  always  the  inno" 
cent  victims  of  the  selfishness,  the  folly  and  the  arrogant  presumption 
of  their  ancestors,  had  a  right  to  expect  from  a  body  of  statesmen,  who, 


LETTERS   TO   AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY.  11 

trying  a  political  experiment,  made  a  constitution  upon  full  deliberation 
and  without  the  pressure  of  external  violence. 

The  signal  error  of  those  sages,  as  they  are  generally  esteemed,  was 
that  they  did  not  confine  themselves,  according  to  the  design  and  tenor 
of  their  instructions,  to  a  simple  revision  and  amendment  of  the  existing 
federal  articles,  with  the  imperfections  of  which  experiment  had  rnaJe, 
them  acquainted.  But  the  ambitious  spirit  of  innovation,  like  an  evil 
genius,  appeared  to  possess  all  minds — at  least  those  that  directed  the 
deliberations  of  that  convention — and  moved  them  to  cast  down  the  old 
government  and  to.  build  on  untried  foundations  an  edifice  iu  propor- 
tions and  materials  new  and  unparalleled  in  design.  They  were  of  too 
enterprising  and  haughty  a  temper  to  tread,  with  the  sage  adviser  expe- 
rience, the  humble  path  of  amendment,  but  sought  to  rival  or  eclipse 
the  honors  of  ancient  lawgivers.  It  is  the  melancholy  privilege  of 
those  upon  whom  the  shipwreck  has  fallen,  to  condemn,  or  at  least  to 
deplore  the  enterprise  of  those  bold  mariners,  who,  without  chart  or  com- 
pass, or  even  the  guiding  lights  of  heaven,  sailed  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules,  into  the  waters  of  the  unknown  sea. 

There  were  those  it  is  true  who  saw  aud  endeavored  to  restrain  the 
madness  of  the  hour,  aud  it  is  to  those  men,  and  not  to  their  successful 
opponents,  that  a  discriminating  posterity  will  award  the  palm  of  wisdom. 

The  author  of  the  "Consulate  and  Empire"  utters  some  sage  reflec- 
tions on  the  asserted  capacity  of  a  man,  or  a  body  of  wise  men,  if  wise 
men  could  be  brought  to  undertake  so  hazardous  a  business,  to  create  by 
the  unassisted  power  of  mind,  a  government  for  a  large  political  society 
— a  fatal  delusion  which  to  so  great  a  degree  has  existed  in  America. 
These  reflections  come  with  a  greater  weight  from  a  philosopher  of 
France,  where  too  they  have  gambled  to  excess  in  stocks  of  that  kind.* 

"There  was,  however,"  says  Thiers,  "a  task  which  was  generally 
assigned  to  Sieyes — that  of  preparing  the  new  constitution,  which  the 
provisional  consuls  were  charged  to  digest,  and  to  propose  to  France 
without  much  delay.  At  this  period  people  were  still  somewhat  imbued 
with  the  ideas  of  the  eighteenth  century;  it  was  loss  generally,  but  yet 
too  much  believed,  that  human  institutions  might  be  purely  the  work  of 
mind,  and  that  the  constitution  of  a  nation  might  spring  ready-made 
from  the  brain  of  a  legislator.  Assuredly,  if  the  French  Revolution 
most  have  had  a  Solon  or  a  Lycurgus,  M.  Sieyes  was  worthy  of  beiug 
so;  but  there  is  only  one  real  legislator  in  modern  times — that  is  expe- 
rience.    This  idea  was  not  so  common  then  as  it  is  now-a-days,  and  it 

*  Talleyrand,  Bishop  of  Autun,  boasted  that  he  had  sworn  to  seventeen  consti- 
tutions. The  poet  says,  at  lovers'  pet-juries  the  gods  laugh,  and  it  is  hoped  they 
deal  as  leniently  with  politicians.  Else  it  may  go  hard  with  others  besides  the 
Bishop  of  Autun. 


12  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY. 

was  universally  agreed  that  M.  Sieyea  should  be  the  author  of  the  new 
constitution  :  this  was  hoped,  this  was  said;  it  was  asserted  that  he  pos- 
sessed one,  which  w;w  the  result  of  long  meditation  ;  that  it  was  a  pro- 
found, an  admirable  production,  and  that,  beiui;  now  rid  of  the  obstaoles 
which  the  revolutionary  passions  threw  in  his  way,  he  could  bring  it 
forward." 

I  am,  sir,  very  forcibly  reminded  here  of  the  litter  of  constitutions, 
each  unlike  the  other,  which  were  carried  by  their  airy  projectors  to 
Philadelphia.  Madison  and  Sieyea  were  both  men  of  remarkable  genius, 
but  why  smile  at  the  extravagant  presumption  of  the   Frenchman,  and 

extol  the  other  for  a  sage  ?  * 



*  Madison,  it  is  true,  did  not  produce  a  distinct  plan  of  a  constitution,  but 
be  claims  to  have  had  a  baud  in  the  one  brought  forward  by  Edmund  Randolph. 
Whether  justly  or  unjustly,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  his  admirers  claim  for 
him  the  honor  of  being  the  father  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  13 


LETTER  II. 

In  no  part  of  the  Constitution  framed  by  the  Convention  of  1787  is 
the  love  of  novelty  so  strikingly  displayed,  as  in  the  structure  of  the 
executive  department;  power  there  being  deposited  in  a  single  magis- 
trate chosen  by  the  people.  Besides  being  furnished  with  a  veto  on 
legislative  action,  the  execution  of  the  laws,  the  command  of  the  army, 
and  a  more  than  regal  patronage,  that  powerful  functionary  is  rendered 
irresponsible  for  his  official  acts,  so  long  as  he  abstains  from  the  com- 
mission of  crimes.  Being  invested  with  the  representative  and  popular 
character,  he  has  ever  proved,  as  was  doubtless  foreseen,  a  successful 
competitor  with  Congress  for  popularity  and  public  support.  It  is 
extremely  difficult  to  understand  how  the  convention  could  have 
designed  their  president  to  be  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  Republic.  An 
officer  so  endowed  more  nearly  rcsembks  a  powerful  elective  monarch 
divested  of  his  crown  and  robes.  This  infusion  of  the  principle  of 
monarchy  into  the  Constitution,  was  a  radical  departure  from  that 
republican  federative  system  already  established,  and  had  it  stood  alone, 
would  have  made  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  what  its  fabri- 
cators proudly  represented  it  to  be — a  new,  a  national  government. 
"Thus  upon  the  body  and  stock  of  the  ancient  polity  was  inoculated  a 
scion  alien  to  the  nature  of  the  original  plant." 

"A  spirit  of  innovation,"  says  Burke,  "is  generally  the  result  of  a 
selfish  temper  and  confined  views.  People  will  not  look  forward  to 
posterity,  who  never  look  backwards  to  their  ancestors."  The  Conven- 
tion of  1787,  whilst  they  turned  their  backs  upon  the  past,  closed  their 
eyes  to  the  future — ignoring  and  despising  their  predecessors,  whilst 
they  gambled  with  the  happiness  and  liberty  of  posterity. 

The  executive  office,  under  the  Confederation,  was  deeply  impressed 
with  the  republican  nature  of  the  government  to  which  it  belonged, 
being  exercised  not  by  a  single  and  independent  officer,  but  by  a  council 
of  ministers  appointed  by  Congress  and  kept  under  its  superintendence. 
There  could  be  no  inducement  or  provocation  for  the  legislative  power 
to  encroach  upon  the  proper  functions  of  the  executive ;  the  executive 
could  not  encroach  upon  the  jurisdiction  of  the  legislature.  This 
stamped  the  Confederation,  which  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  we  have  elsewhere 
seen,  has  so  highly  extolled,  as  a  parliamentary  government,  in  contra- 
distinction to  those  which  partake  of  the  monarchical  or  executive  char- 
acter.    In  governments  of  this  nature,  the  legislature,  composed  of  the 


14  LETTERS    TO    AX    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMT. 

representatives  of  the  people,  and  deriving  its  inspirations  from  them, 
governs  society,  the  executive,  so  importaut  in  its  effects,  heing  placed 
in  a  subordinate  and  responsible  position. 

The  teachers  of  the  Common  Law  inculcate  that  the  execution  is  the 
life  of  the  law,  an  elementary  truth  which  rests  on  the  firmest  founda- 
tions. But  if  the  execution  is  the  life  of  the  law — without  which  all 
legislation  is  only  a  nerveless  body — the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment is  as  truly  the  life  of  the  government.  It  is  one  of  those  active 
necessary  functions  upon  which  the  existence,  or  at  least  the  health  and 
efficiency  of  the  government,  so  entirely  depends,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
attach  too  high  an  importance  to  its  proper  organization.  Indeed,  every 
officer  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  laws,  exercises,  of  necessity, 
some  portion  of  judicial  power,  since  it  is  necessary  to  interpret  the 
meaning  of  laws  before  they  can  be  carried  into  effect.  It  is  possible, 
then,  for  the  executive  official  to  defeat  or  at  least  impair  the  policy  of 
the  legislature,  or  to  give  it,  full  force. 

Sound  theory,  then,  in  a  parliamentary  government,  (since  with  some 
it  is  important  that  political  systems  should  be  cast  in  conformity  with 
metaphysical  exactness,)  or  ratf^r  its  very  purpose,  requires  the  execu- 
tive to  be  kept  in  relations  of  dependence  on  the  legislature.  Where 
those  constitutional  connexions  are  established,  a  correspondence  and 
concert  of  action  is  enforced,  and  that  counteraction  of  parts  avoided, 
which  is  so  malignant  in  its  effects  in  practical  government.  Thus  one 
spirit,  one  design,  animates  the  whole,  so  that  what  is  determined  in 
wisdom  is  executed  with  fidelity  and  vigor.  But  great  and  intense  is 
the  evil  where  an  independent  Executive  wields  the  tremendous  power 
of  the  veto  and  is  invested  with  an  extensive  patronage,  which  is  power 
in  its  most  seductive  and  irresistible  form.  The  Legislature,  then,  must 
in  the  end  succumb.  So  much  more  potent  in  human  affairs  is  action 
than  deliberation.  This  is  the  moral  of  all  history,  and  is  one  which 
considerate  men  will  never  forget. 

When  Bonaparte  was  associated  with  Sieyes  in  the  consulship,  he 
quickly  agreed  to  a  division  of  power  with  his  philosophic  colleague. 
"  Sieyes,"  says  the  author  already  quoted,  "  was  to  be  the  legislator  and 
General  Bonaparte  the  administrator  of  the  new  government."  In  no 
part  of  his  astonishing  and  tumultuous  career  did  that  remarkable 
genius  display  a  more  subtle  and  profound  penetration.  Whilst  the 
philosopher  was  engaged  with  his  political  systems,  his  rival  electrified 
France  by  his  administrative  power,  and  paved  the  way  to  the  empire, 
which  he  presently  took  possession  of. 

llo^er  Sherman,  one  of  the  clearest  and  best  thinkers  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1787,  with  ability  and  zeal  opposed  the  introduction  of  a  single 
person  into  the  executive  magistracy.     He  contended  that  the  executive 


LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  '        15 

was  nothing  more  than  an  institution  for  carrying  the  will  of  the  legis- 
lature into  effect ;  that  the  person  or  persons  ought  to  he  appointed  ly 
and  accountable  to  the  legislature  only,  which  teas  the  depository  of  the 
loill  of  society.  I  have  placed  these  golden  words  in  italics,  because 
they  contain  a  great  principle  of  free  government,  expunged  though  it 
was  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  In  this  change,  the 
authors  of  it  disclosed  the  secret  leanings  of  their  opinions.  They 
appear  in  truth  to  have  lost  confidence  in  the  capacity  of  the  people  for 
self-government.  They  were  thus  placed  in  a  false  position,  when  they 
assumed  the  task  to  frame  popular  institutions  and  became  as  the  advo- 
cates and  propagators  of  popular  ideas;,  teachers  of  what  they  did  not 
believe.  Hence  it  was  that,  in  a  .Republic,  they  set  up  a  single  magis- 
trate as  the  sole  depository  of  the  executive  power,  and  allowed  him,  by 
his  great  patronage  and  his  veto,  to  control  legislative  action;  that  they 
invested  him  with  a  great  administrative  discretion  and  made  him  as 
little  responsible  for  its  exercise  as  any  potentate  of  monarchical  Europe. 
When  Patrick  Henry  perused  that  instrument,  which  after  so  painful  a 
travail  had  been  brought  forth  at  Philadelphia,  he  placed  his  finder 
upon  the  executive  and  pronounced  it  to  be  the  rotten  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution. 

The  proposition  so  distinctly  and  forcibly  announced  by  Mr.  Sherman 
was  not  controverted  by  a  single  member  of  the  Convention.  But  the 
combined  exertions  of  Wilson,  Madison,  the  Pinckneys,  Rutledge  and 
Gouverneur  Morris,  aided  by  the  influence  of  Gen.  Washington,  bore 
down  all  opposition.  It  was  in  vain  that  Edmjund  Randolph,  at  that 
time  Governor  of  Virginia,  deuounced  the  plan  as  containing  "  the 
foetus  of  monarchy."  It  was  in  vain  that  Sherman  reiterated  the  doc- 
trine "that  the  executive  ought  to  be  appointed  by  the  legislature  and 
dependent  on  that  body,  as  it  was  the  will  of  that  which  was  to  be 
executed.  An  independence,"  added  he,  of  the  executive  on  the  supreme 
legislature,  was,  in  his  opinion,  the  essence  of  tyranny,  if  any  such 
thing  existed."  It  was  in  vain  that  Doctor  Franklin  remonstrated 
against  the  proposed  changes.  It  was  in  vain  that  George  Mason,  one 
of  the  wisest  men  of  that  day,  lifted  up  his  voice  against  it.  "  We  are 
going,  Mr.  Chairman,"  said  Mason,  "very  far  in  this  business.  We 
are  not  indeed  constituting  a  British  Government,  but  a  more  dangerous 
monarchy,  an  elective  one.  We  are  introducing  a  neio  principle  into 
our  system  and  not  necessary  as  in  the  British  Government,  where  the 
king  has  greater  rights  to  defend.  Do  gentlemen  mean  to  pave  the  way 
to  hereditary  monarchy  ?"  Doctor  Franklin  agreed  with  Mr.  Mason. 
"Col.  Mason,"  said  he,  "had  mentioned  the  circumstance  of  appoint- 
ing officers.  He  knew  how  that  point  would  he  managed.  No  new 
appointments  would  be  suffered,  as  heretofore  in  Pennsylvania,  unless 


16  •  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    TIIE    ARMY. 

it  be  referred  to  the  executive;  so  that  aU  the  profitable  offices  a-iU  be 
at  hit  disposal.  The  first  man  put  at  the  helm  will  be  a  good  one.  No- 
body knows  what  sort  will  come  afterwards.  The  executive  will  always 
be  increasing  here,  till  it  ends  in  monarchy." 

But  it  was  Morris,  ever  avowed  in  his  preferences  for  kingly  power, 
revealed  the  unspoken  wishes  of  his  party.  He  plainly  told  the 
ention,  that  "one  great  object  of  the  executive  was  to  control  the 
legislature/'  /0^ 

Fait  Madison,  as  if  to  break  the  force  of  that  frank  avowal  and  sub- 
stitute his  own  subtle  and  deceptive  logic,  insisted,  "If  it  be  a  funda- 
mental principle  of  free  govern  meat,  that  the  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial  powers  should  be  separately  exercised,  it  is  equally  so  that  they 
be  independently  exercised.  There  is  the  same  and  perhaps  greater 
reason  why  the  executive  should  be  independent  of  the  legislature  than 
why  the  judiciary  should." 

This,  sir,  appears  to  be  a  strange  doctrine  to  proceed  from  an  authority 
so  respectable,  but  it  contains  the  seeds  of  the  executive  and  monarch- 
ical government.  No  two  departments  and  no  two  classes  of  powers 
stand  upon  grounds  more  widely  different  than  the  executive  and  judi- 
cial. The  acknowledged  province  of  the  judiciary,  under  a  system 
which  defines  the  powers  of  government,  is  to  restrain  political  action 
within  the  prescribed  limits.  It  is  the  bulwark  of  the  Constitution. 
An  independent  will,  coupled  with  and  strengthened  by  an  independent 
tenure  of  office,  has  been  found  to  be  indispeusable  to  enable  a  court, 
which,  being  removed  from  the  sphere  of  active  business,  stands  alone 
on  its  rendered  reasons,  to  perform  with  success  this  delicate  and  im- 
portant duty.  So  august  a  tribunal  ought  to  be  surrourjded  with  the 
strongest  barriers  which  prudence  and  foresight  could  devise.  The 
experience  of  the  judiciary  of  England,  which  opens  some  of  the  dark- 
est and  most  .criminal  chapters  in  her  history,  abundantly  proves  this. 
But  without  doubt  these  reasons  apply  not  to  an  executive  organ,  which 
at  the  hand  of  the  legislature.  To  supply  it  with  an  independent 
will,  would  be  as  greal  a  solecism  in  the  political,  as  in  the  natural  body. 
The  example  of  Croat  Britain,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  applies*  here 
too  with  full  force;  for  after  a  long  and  painful  experience,  whilst  they 
have  established  the  independence  of  the  judiciary  in  that  country  upon 
the  most  solid  foundation,  they  have,  by  force  of  arms,  reduced  their 
executive  to  obedience  to  the  legislature. 

The  functions  of  the  three  departments,  into  which  all  government 
naturally  falls,  ought  to  be  exercised  separately;  but  independent  wills 
arc  not  necessary  to  secure  this  end.  A  simple  declaration  of  the  funda- 
mental law,  except  as  to  the  judiciary,  is  quite  sufficient,  even  where 
the  legislature  appoints  the  incumbents  of  the  other  departments.     But 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  17 

if  the  legislature  should  attempt  to  intrude  upon  the  executive,  and 
exercise  the  functions  belonging  to  that  organ  of  the  government,  an 
appeal  to  an  independent  and  enlightened  judiciary  sets  all  right.  The 
experience  of  Virginia,  under  securities  of  that  nature,  is  believed  to  be 
alone  a  full  and  satisfactory  answer  to  the  argument,  or  rather  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Madison. 


18  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IX   THE    ARMY. 


LETTER  III. 

As  we  all  know,  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  after  difficulty  and 
delay,  were  prepared  by  the  Continental  Congress.  The  colonial  experi- 
ence had  taught  the  men  who  composed  that  body,  that  collisions  ensue 
when  an  independent  Executive  is  permitted  to  exercise  a  controlling 
power  over  the  Legislature.  Indeed,  collisions  almost  as  fierce,  had 
occurred  between  the  provincial  legislatures  and  the  royal  governors,  as 
between  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  Princes  of  the  House  of  Stu- 
art. Those  statesmen,  consequently,  when  they  came  to  frame  a  new 
polity,  wisely  settled  these  quarrels  in  advance,  by  placing  the  Executive 
on  a  footing  of  subordination  to  the  Congress.  In  this  they  but  imitated 
the  principle  of  the  Constitution  framed  for  Virginia  by  the  plastic  hands 
of  George  Mason. 

Executive  power  under  the  Confederation,  though  sound  in  its  cha- 
racteristic principle,  was  nevertheless  far  from  being  perfectly  organized 
and  developed.  That  work  had  been  left  for  Congress  to  perform, 
assisted  by  the  lights  of  experience.  That  first  experiment  in  federal 
government  in  America  failed,  but  the  failure  was  due  to  the  imperfect 
attributes  with  which  the  government  of  the  Confederation  was  endowed, 
not  to  defects  in  the  structure  of  its  executive  department.  There  could 
not  be  adduced  a  more  authoritative  witness  to  the  correctness  of  this 
assertion  than  Mr.  Madison.  It  will  be  noted  by  you,  that  in  the  fol- 
lowing comprehensive  and  lucid  statement  of  the  defects  of  that  Consti" 
tution,  the  Executive  is  not  included.  Further  on,  and  in  another  con" 
nection,  the  criticisms  of  Mr.  Jefferson  will  be  considered. 

"The  principal  difficulty,"  says  Mr.  Madison,  ''which  embarrassed 
the  progress  and  retarded  the  cooipletion  of  the  plan  of  the  Confedera- 
tion, may  be  traced  to — first,  the  natural  repugnance  of  the  parties  to 
a  relinquishment  of  power;  secondly,  a  natural  jealousy  to  its  abuse  in 
other  hands  than  their  own  ;  thirdly,  the  rule  of  suffrage  among  parties 
whose  inequality  in  size  did  not  correspond  with  that  of  their  wealth,  or 
of  their  military  or  free  population;  fourthly,  the  selection  and  defini- 
tion of  the  powers }  at  once  necessary  to  the  federal  head,  and  safe  to 
the  several  members. 

"To  these  sources  of  difficulty,  incident  to  the  formation  "of  all  such 
confederacies,  were  added  two  others,  one  of  a  temporary,  the  other  of    < 
a  permanent  nature.     The  first  was  the  case  of  the  crown  lands,  so  called 
because  they  had  been  held  by  the  British  Crown,  and  being  un granted 


LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  19 

to  individuals  when  its  authority  ceased,  were  considered  by  the  States 
•within  whose  charters  or  asserted  limits  they  lay,  as  devolving  en  them  j 
whilst  it  was  contended  by  the  others,  that,  being  wrested  from  the  de- 
throned authority  by  the  equal  exertions  of  all,  they  resulted  of  right 
and  in  equity  to  the  benefit  of  all.  The  lands  being  of  vast  extent,  ind 
of  growing  value,  were  the  occasion  of  much  discussion  and  heart-burn- 
ing, and  proved  the  most  obstinate  of  the  impediments  to  an  earlier  con- 
summation of  the  plan  of  federal  government.  The  State  of  Maryland, 
the  last  that  acceded  to  it,  held  out,  as  already  noticed,  till  the  1st  of 
March,  1781,  and  then  yielded  only  to  the  hope  that,  by  giving  a  stable 
and  authoritative  character  to  the  Confederation,  a  successful  termination 
of  the  contest  might  be  accelerated  The  dispute  was  happily  compromised 
by  successive  surrenders  of  portions  of  the  territory  by  the  States  having 
exclusive  claims  to  it,  and  acceptances  of  them  by  Congress. 

"  The  other  source  of  dissatisfaction  was  the  peculiar  situation  of  some 
of  the  States,  which,  having  no  convenient  ports  for  foreign  commerce, 
were  subject  to  be  taxed  by  their  neighbors,  through  whose  ports  their 
commerce  was  cairied  on.  New  Jersey,  placed  between  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  was  likened  to  a  cask  tapped  at  both  ends;  and  North 
<  Una,  between  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  to  a  patiant  bleeding  at 
bofli  arms.  The  Articles  of  Confederation  provided  no  remedy  for  the 
co'.iplaint,  which  produced  a  strong  protest  on  the  part  of  New  Jet 
and  never  ceased  to  be  a  source  of  dissatisfaction  and  discord,  until  the 
new  Constitution  superseded  the  old. 

"  Hut  the  radical  infirmity  of  the  'Articles  of  Confederation'  was  the 
dependence  of  Congress  on  the  voluntary  and  simultaneous  compliance 
with  its  requisitions  by  so  many  independent  communities,  each  consult- 
ing more  or  less  its  particular  interests  and  convenience,  and  distrusting 
the  compliance  of  others.  Whilst  the  paper  emissions  of  Congre-s  con- 
tinued to  circulate,  they  were  employed  as  a  sinew  of  war,  like  gold  arid 
silver.  When  that  ceased  to  be  the  case,  and  the  fatal  defect  of  the 
political  system  was  felt  in  its  alarming  force,  the  war  was  mere!;, 
alive,  and  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion,  by  such  foreign  aids  and 
temporaty  expedients  as  could  be  applied  ;  a  hope  prevailing  with  many, 
and  a  wish  with  all,  that  a  state  of  pi  ace,  aud  the  sources  of  prosperity 
'opened  by  it,  would  give  to  the  Confederacy,  in  practice,  the  efficiency 
which  had  been  inferred  from  its  theory. 

"The  close  of  the  war,  however,  brought  no  cure  for  the  public  em- 
barrassments. The  States,  relieved  from  the  pressure  of  foreign  danger, 
and  flushed  with  the  enjoyment  of  independent  and  sovereigu  power, 
instead  of  a  diminished  disposition  to  part  with  it,  persevered  in  omis- 
sions and  in  measures  incompatible  with  their  relations  to  the  Federal 
Government,  and  with  those  among  themselves. 


20  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY. 

u  Having  Berved  as  a  member  of  Congress  through  the  period  between 
Mule1  ,17~  nid  the  arrival  of  peace,  in  17S),  I  had  become  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  public  distresses  and  the  causes  of  them.  1  had 
observed  the  successful  opposition  to  every  attempt  to  procure  a  retm  dy 
by  new  grants  of  power  to  Congress.  1  had  found,  moreover,  that  de- 
spair of  success  hung  over  the  compromising  principle  of  April,  1783, 
for  the  public  necessities,  which  had  been  so  elaborately  planned  and  so 
impressively  recommended  to  the  States.  Sympathizing,  und  r  this 
aspect  of  affairs,  in  the  alarm  of  the  friends  of  free  government  at  tho 
threatened  danger  of  an  abortive  result  to  the  great,  and  perhaps  last, 
experiment  in  its  favor,  I  could  not  be  insensible  to  the  obligation  to  aid 
as  far  as  I  could  in  averting  the  calamity.  With  this  view,  I  acceded 
to  the  desire  of  my  fellow-citizens  of  the  county,  that  I  should  be  one 
of  its  representatives  in  the  Legislature,  hoping  that  I  might  there  best 
contribute  to  inculcate  the  critical  pssture  to  which  the  revolutionary 
cause  was  reduced,  and  the  merit  of  a  leading  agency  of  the  State  in 
bringing  about  a  rescue  of  the  Union,  and  the  blessings  of  liberty  staked 
on  it,  from  an  impending  catastrophe." — Madison  Papers,  vol.  1: 
p.  690-G94. 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   TIIE   ARMY.  21 


LETTER  IV. 


If  (he  Executive  Veto  be  not  necessary  to  prevent  the  intrusions  of 
the  Legislature,  it  will  not  be  very  easy  to  assign  a  sufficient  reason  for 
introducing  it  in  a  Republic.  But  if  no  good  can  arise  from  arming  a 
republican  officii!  with  so  potent  a  weapon,  we  cannot  be  at  a  loss  to 
divine  many  injurious  consequences  to  follow  from  it. 

In  the  course  of  its  deceplive  argument  in  vindication  of  the  Presi- 
dential Veto,  the  Federalist,  the  renowned  champion  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  contends,  that  "the  great  security  against 
a  gradual  concentration  of  the  several  powers  in  the  same  department, 
consists  in  giving  those  who  administer  each  department  the  necessary 
constitutional  menu*  and  personal  motives  to  resist  th(  emroachment  of 
the  others.  The  provision  for  defence  must  in  this,  as  in  all  other  cases, 
be  made  commensurate  to  the  danger  of  attack.  Ambition  must  be 
mm  J  v  in  encounter  ambition.  The  interests  of  the  man  must  be  con- 
nected  with  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  place.  It  may  be  a  reflec- 
tion on  human  nature  that  such  devices  should  be  necessary  to  control 
the  ahusosof  the  government.  But  what  is  government  itself  but  the 
greatest  of  all  reflections  on  human  nature?  If  men  were  angels,  no 
government  would  be  necessary.  If  angels  were  to  govern  men,  neither 
nal  nor  internal  control  in  government  would  be  necessary."* 

*  It  is  expedient,  when  practicable,  to  oppose  Jefferson  to  Hamilton,  that  Greek 
may  nteet  Greek,  and  expedient  too,  as  in  this  case,  to  oppose  Jefferson  to  Jef- 
ferson. 

On  the  19th  June,  1807,  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  President,  writes  to  Governor 
Bull  van:  "In  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  your  favor  of  the  3rd  instant,  I 
avail  myself  of  the  occasion  it  offers  of  tendering  to  yourself,  to  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  to  your  State,  my  sincere  congratulations  on  the  late  happy  event  of  the 
election  of  a  Republican  Executive  to  preside  over  its  councils.  The  harmony  it 
has  introduced  between  the  legislative  and  executive  branches,  between  the  people 
and  both  of  them,  and  between  nil  and  the  Federal  Government,  are  so  many 
steps  towards  securing  that  union  of  action  and  effort,  in  all  its  parts,  without 
which  no  nation  can  be  happy  or  safe."  He  here  expresses  in  the  most  forcible 
language,  the  canon  contended  for  in  the  text.  A  faithful  adherence  to  this 
opinion  would  have  protected  Mr.  Jefferson  from  previous  as  well  as  subsequent 
aberrations.  Instead  of  this  united  action,  Hamilton  and  Madison  would  have 
introduced  the  discordant  principle  of  personal  ambition.  But  Mr.  Jefferson 
does  not  confine  the  application  of  this  rule  to  those  narrow  confines,  but  re- 
garding the  States  and  the  Federal  agent,  as  but  the  parts  of  a  great  system  of 
government,  from  which  the  greatest  amount  of  good  was  to  be  derived  by  their 


22  LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

But  f\  r  the  \  0  that  men  are  not  angels  and  that1  angels  do 

not  govern  men.  it  has  ever  been  found,  in  a  republican  system,  t bat. 
the  alien  and  hostile  principle  of  a  single  add  controlling  magistrate  in 
the  executive  department  is  in  the  end  destructive  to  the  government' 

Cau  it  be  either  safe  or  judicious,  in  order  to  attain  a  subordinate  ob- 
ject, as  well  or  better  reached  by  other  means,  to  array  ambition  against 
ambition  and  introduce  personal  and  selfish   mi  I 

to  official  action?  Tt  would  appear  that  there  could  not  be  devised  by 
the  ingenuity  and  wit  of  man  a  more  fruitful  source  of  faction,  of  un- 
principled and  violent  fiction,  in  the  highest  concerns  of  society.  It 
would  rather  seem  that  no  stronger  argument  could  be  adduced  against 
such  an  executive  organization  than  that  it  must  produce  that  promised 
fruit — must  sow  broad  cast,  strife  and  contention  in  the  government. 
Indeed,  the  conflict,  beginning  with  statesmen,  but  statesmen  represent- 
ing hostile  principles^  government,  would  >on  into  a  struggle 
for  supremacy,  and  their  rivalry  would  be  communicated  to  the  body  of 
the  people.  Thus  a  difference  originating  in  the  ambition  and  per- 
sonal motives  of  official,  characters  agitates  society  and  becomes  the 
dividing  line  of  infuriated  parties  ;  and  i  he  flames  of  civil  war  are  event- 
ually kindled  by  questions  which  had  their  birth  in  unworthy  or  per- 
haps,base  motives. 

The  Federalist  misapplies  to  the  executive  department  a  principle 
which  is  sound  and  necessary  if  applied  to  the  constitution  of  a  legis- 
lature extending  over  a  community  of  opposing  interests  and  social 
tendencies.  But  an  equilibrium  has  no  place  as  between  the  executive 
and  legislative  departments  of  a  well  ordered  republic  Harmony  and 
unity  of  action,  not  antagonism,  is  here  the  only  safe  rule      To  create 

« 
concurrent  operation,  be  adds,  "Your  opinion  of  the  propriety  end  advantage  of  a 
more  intimate  correspondence  between  the  Executives  of  the  several  States,  and 
that  of  the  Union,  as  a  central  point,  is  precisely  that  which  I  have  ever  enter- 
tained; and  on  coming  into  office,  I  fell  the  advantage  which  would  result  from 
that  harmony.  I  had  even  in  contemplation  alter  the  annual  recommendation 
to  Congress  of  those  measures  called  for  by  the  times,  which  the  Constitution 
had  placed  under  tb  ,    o  make  communications  in  like  manner  to  the 

Executives  of  the  States,  as  to  any  parts  of  them  to  which  their  Legislatures 
might  be  alone  competent.  For  many  are  exeroises  of  power  reserved  to  the 
States,  wherein  an  uniformity  of  proceeding  would  be  of  advantage  to  all- 
Such  are  quarantines,  health  laws,  regulations  of  the  press,  banking  in.-titu- 
tions,  militia,  &c.  &c.  But  you  know  what  was  the  several  State  governments 
when  I  came  into  office.  That  a  great  proportion  of  them  were  Federal  and 
would  have  been  delighted  with  opportunities  of  proclaiming  their  contempt 
and  opposing  Republican  men  and  measures.  *  *  *  I  look  to  this,  there- 
fore, as  a  course  which  will  probably  be  left  to  the  consideration  of  my  sue. 
cessor." 


LETTERS  TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   THE  ARMY.  23 

from  choice  a  government  of  whatever  description  under  the  divided 
empire  of  two  independent  and  contending  wills,  would  imply  as  great 
a  schism  as  if  a  machine  were  contrived  with  two  independent  centres 
of  motion.  The  model  might  captivate  the  eye,  but  having  no  balance- 
wheel,  motion  would  jostle  motion,  wheel  counteract  wheel,  until  the 
whole  mechanism  would  fly  in  pieces. 

The  Constitution  of  the -United  States  embraced  the  principle  so 
skilfully  defended  by  Hamilton  in  the  Federalist.  But  what  has  fol- 
lowed from  bringing  into  collision  those  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment ?  Has  the  public  good  been  advanced?  On  the  contrary,  the 
policy  of  the  Legislature  has  been  often  thwarted  and  its  action  para- 
lyzed. The  personal  motives  of  individuals,  perhaps  their  ambition, 
has  added  fuel  to  the  angry  passions  of  factions  and  blown  them  into 
seven -fold  rage. 

The  constitution  of  the  legislature  rested  on  the  basis  of  a  sectional 
preponderance,  and  these  executive  checks  may  on  that  account,  in  some 
instances,  have  redounded  to  the  advantage  of  the  weaker  section. 
But  such  benefits  were  accidental.  Had  the  legislative  authority  been 
properly  constructed,  the  violent  antagonisms  resulting  from  an  inde- 
pendent executive  could  have  been  fraught  only  with  evil. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  old  enough  to  possess  a  his- 
tory of  its  own,  and  if  we  look  into  some  of  its  developments  we  will 
understand  the  ill-consequences  flowing  from  the  discordant  action  of 
the  different  departments  of  the  government. 

In  presenting  examples  of  such  discordant  action,  it  will  not  be  ne- 
cessary to  detail  or  descant  upon  the  numerous  instances  in  which  the 
Congress  has,  in  the  brief  history  of  the  government,  been  brought 
into  conflict  with  the  President.  They  are  present  in  every  memory, 
and  establish  the  strong  tendency  that  exists  in  governments  framed  on 
such  principles  to  engender  angry  collisions.  On  the  two  questions  to 
which  I  deem  it  fit  now  to  ask  more  special  attention,  the  lines  dividing 
the  parties  arrayed  in  opposition  were  not  the  same  as  in  the  easts  above 
adverted  to,  and  the  subjects  of  strife  were  different;  but  the  examina- 
tion will  bring  before  us  evidences,  not  less  clear  and  not  less  import- 
ant, of  the  evil  consequences  which  must  result  in  the  administration 
of  government  by  departments  independent  in  design,  but  antagonistic 
in  effect. 

The  treaty  power  is  confided  to  the  hands  of  the  President  and  Sen- 
ate, and  that  of  legislation  is  deposited  with  Congress.  But  when  a 
treaty  has  been  ratified  which  calls  for  legislation,  is  it  the  right  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  to  be  consulted  in  the  first  place  about  the 
treaty,  (which  was  in  accordance  with  Jefferson's  opinion ;)  or,  if  not 
consulted,  has  the  House  the  constitutional  power  to  refuse  its  consent 


21  LETTERS   TO   AN    OFFICER   IX    THE   ARMY. 

to  the  legislation  required  to  fulfil  the  terms  of  the  treaty?  If  we 
determine  that  the  House  is  excluded  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution 
from  participating  in  the  treaty  power,  and  therefore  must  not  be  con- 
sulted, but  ia  required  to  pass  such  laws  as  arc  called  for  by  the  treaty, 
the  House  of  Representatives  is  practioally  stripped  of  a  portion  of  the 
power  of  legislation  which  is  explicitly  put  in  its  hands  as  a  part 
of  the  legislature.  If  the  decision  be  otherwise,  the  House  is  let  into 
the  treaty  power;  for  almost  all  treaties  require  legislation  to  give  them 
effect. 

This  is  a   very  striking   example  of  unskilful  organization.     Here 
again  the  Constitution  holds  out  an   invitation  to  divisions  in  the  gov- 
ernment,  and    such    divisions    have    actually  occurred.     When    Jay's 
treaty  was  formed  during  the  administration  of  General  Washington, 
the   President  addressed   a  message  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  the  necessary  legislation  was  adopted,  but  not  until  the  House  had 
passed  resolutions  sustaining  its  pretensions.     In  1^16  the  controversy 
was  revived,  and  it  is  still  undetermined  whether  the  President  or  Sen- 
ate can,  in  exercising  the  power  to  make  treaties  with  foreign  nations, 
break  down  some  of  the  strongest  and  best  defined   limitations  of  the 
Constitution  and  practically  wield  the  legislative  power;   or,  whether 
the  House  of  Representatives,  whenever  opportunity  offers,  can  law- 
fully intrude  upon  the  peculiar  province  of  the  Executive  and  Senate. 
When   Mr.  Jefferson   acceded  to  "the  Federal   throne,"  (if  I  may 
borrow  the  nomenclature  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  but  prematurely  em- 
ployed,) he  found  the  jails  filled  with  the  victims  of  the  Sedition  law, 
condemned,  however,  by  the  regular  sentences  of  the  lawful  courts. 
With  a  promptitude  characteristic'  of  a  Republican  magistrate,  who  is 
backed  by  large  majorities,  he  released  those  prisoners.     Here  was  ano- 
ther instance  of  conflicting  power.     But  the  President  justified  his  ac- 
tion, and  in  a  letter  (September  11,  180-1)  to  Mrs.  Adams  on  that  subject 
thus   delivers   his   opinion:   "You  seem    to  think  it   devolved  on    the 
Judges  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  Sedition  law.     Rut  nothing  in 
the  Constitution  has  given  them  the  right  to  decide  for  the  Executive* 
more  than  to  the  Executive  to  decide  for  them.     Both  magistracies  are 
equally  independent  in  the  sphere  of  action  assigned  to  them.     The 
Judges,  believing  the  law  to  be  constitutional,  bad  a  right  to  pass  a  sen- 
tence of  fine  and  imprisonment,  because  the  power  was  placed  in  their 
hands  by  the  Constitution.     But  the  Executive,  believing  the  law  to  be 
unconstitutional,  were  bound  to  remit  the  execution  of  it;  because  that 
power  had  been  confided  to  them  by  the  Constitution." 

How  easy  is  it  for  Executive  power  to  grow  !  Here  a  Republican 
magistrate  annuls  the  judgment  of  a  court  of  record,  and  diapennes  with 
penalties  which,  in  virtue  of  an  act  of  Congress,  had  been  inflicted  by 
an  authorized  tribunal. 


LETTERS   TO    AN   OFFICER    IN   THE  ARMY.  25 


LETTER  V. 


The  authority  of  Mr.  Madison  has  been  produced  to  show  that  the 
constitution  of  the  executive  power  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
was  not  considered  as  belonging  to  the  defects  of  that,  instrument, 
which  called  for  reformation.  Why,  then,  was  the  parliamentary  gov- 
ernment thrust  aside  by  the  Convention  of  Philadelphia  and  a  monar- 
chical executive  established?  The  motives  assigned  by  Madison  in  the 
Convention  and  by  Hamilton  in  the  Federalist  are  not  satisfactory. 
They  look  more  like  the  specious  arguments  of  the  sophist  than  the 
well-considered  and  weighty  reflections  of  the  statesman. 

My  own  conviction  is,  that  those  leading  characters  had  lost  confi- 
dence  in  the  stability  of  Republican  institutions,  and  were  in  conse- 
quence induced  to  introduce  that  monarchical  feature  in  the  govern- 
ment. This  impression  has  been  strengthened  by  the  patflwiagc  and 
the  military  and  civil  power  committed  to  their.  President,  and  bis  un- 
limited re-eligibility  to  office.  Nor  has  it  been  weakened  by  the  royal 
state  which  Washington  introduced  and  observed  during  his  entire 
presidential  term.  It  appeared  as  though,  with  as  gentle  a  shock  as 
possible  to  the  public  feeling,  he  sought  to  familiarize  it  from  the  be- 
ginning to  what  in  the  end  would  become  a  necessity.  This  was  the 
opinion  of  Jefferson,  a  keen  observer  and  prominent  actor  in  those 
scenes.*  He  believed  furthermore  that  the  weight  of  the  Federal  party 
was  ready  at  any  time  to  be  thrown  into  the  same  scale;  the  Federal 
party,  at  that  time  so  powerful  from  having  just  cheated  Virginia  into 
a  ratification  of  a  constitution  which  her  people  abhorred,  and  against 
which,  if  her  good  angel  had  not  deserted  her,  she  would  have  cheer- 
fully taken  up  arms  then,  when  the  tyranny  lay  in  embryo,  as  she  has 
since  done.f 

The  memorials  of  that,  period  abound  with  proof  that  the  North  was 
unworthy  of  the  noble  franchises  of  a  Republic.  Indeed,  as  we  are  in- 
formed by  the  "  Ana,"  a  conspiracy  had  been  entered  into  among  the 
Northern  leaders  to  substitute  at  that  time  a  government  of  force  for 
the  tottering  Confederation.  Washington  had  been  consulted.  He 
objected,  and  pressed  instead  his  plan  of  a  national  Republic.  His  mo- 
tive it  was  easy  to  perceive.     If  the  North  were  allowed  to  obey  the 

•  Seo  his  Correspondence  and  his  Ana  of  that  date. 

f  I  ask  permission  to  refer  to  The  Lost  Principle,  where  the  evidences  of  that 
great  perfidy  are  collected. 


26  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER   IX   THE   ARMY. 

instincts  of  nature  and  bow  down  before  a  tbrone,  a  dissolution  of  the 
l"iji'>n  would  have  ensued,  for  the  whole  heart  of  the  South  was  Re- 
publican. A  union  of  the  North  and  South,  both  of  which  ho  had  de- 
fended, and  with  both  of  which  his  fame  was  connected,  was  the  grand 
object  of  his  endeavors.  It  was  of  secondary  importance  whether  the 
liberty  and*  happiness  of  the  South  were  to  be  advanced.  The  I  Dion 
was  the  absorbing  thought,  and  rapt  in  the  contemplation  of  that  sub- 
lime problem,  the  man  of  the  stern  heart  and  strong  will  went  forward. 
Even  that  sober  mind  was  shaken  from  its  balance  by  the  splendid 
vision  of  a  great  .empire  to  be  founded  by  him;  not  by  the  sword  as 
with  Caesar,  or  Alexander,  or  Charlemagne,  but  resting  on  consent. 
Therefore  must  the  South  and  North,  though,  in  their  natures  a-  sepa- 
rate as  order  from  chaos,  be  welded  together,  to  be  afterwards  hurled 
against  each  other  in  dreadful  war,  because  man,  proud,  ambitious  yet 
blind  and  feeble  man,  usurping  the  functions  of  the  Deity,  would  at- 
tempt to  fix  the  destiny  of  nations  and  unite  those  whom  the  God  of 
Nations  had  placed  asunder.* 

*  To  Washington's  clear  comprehension  of  tiling?,  the  North  exhibited  soon 
after  the  Revolution  a  strong  appetite  for  monarchy,  hut  the  reverse  tendency 

had  been  ni:mitrt",l  jn  the  South.     See  Washington's  correspondence  of  that 
period.     The    great  abilities  of  Washington  demand  and  must  ever  obtain  sin- 
cere respect.     But  the  sycophants  around  him  pushed  him  ou  to  sanction  wild 
his  own  judgment  would  have  condemned. 


LETTERS   TO   AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY.  27 


LETTER  VI. 


The  eulogists  of  .the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  have  always 
asserted  that  it  was  framed  on  the  principles  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion, with  respect  to  its  distribution  of  power  among  several  departments, 
and  the  restraints  which  they  impose  on  each  other,  but  yet  so  happily 
tempered,  they  insisted,  as  to  surpass  its  celebrated  model;  for  whibt  it 
secured  all  and  more  than  all  of  its  liberty,  it  had  afforded  to  the  govern- 
ment stability  without  aristocracy  and  vigor  without  monarchy.  This 
would  appear  to  be  high  praise,  when  we  see  the  British  Empire,  greater 
in  extent  than  that  which  obeyed  the  Caesars,  blessed  with  liberty  and 
internal  harmony  and  external  security.  But  whether  the  asserted 
analogy  be  true  or  not  true,  depends  upon  the  period  selected  for  com- 
parison  ;  for  the  British  Constitution,  though  in  many  of  if.-  essential 
parts  an  old  and  venerable  establishment,  has  yet  been  subjected  in  com- 
paratively recent  times  to  important  alterations — alterations,  indeed,  as 
we  shall  soon  see,  of  so  material  a  character  as  radically  to  affect  the 
government.  In  order  to  bring  this  part  of  the  subject  fully  into  view, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  make  an  excursion  into  European  history,  but  it* 
will  be  a  brief  one  and  will  not  take  us  out  of  the  common  track. 

The  English  Constitution  belonged  to  the  class  of  limited  monarchies 
which  prevailed  at  one  period  generally  in  Europe.  At  first  they  ap- 
peared with  a  royal  executive  in  conjunction  with  a  council  of  nobles, 
aud  sometimes  added  a  house  for  the  higher  clergy.  After  awhile,  as 
the  commonalty  rose  iu  the  scale  of  wealth  and  social  consideration,  that 
order  was  admitted  to  a  participation  in  representative  power;  for  it  was 
a  principle  inherent  in  feudal  law  that  no  one  of  the  divisions  or  states 
could  be  subjected  to  taxation  without  being  admitted  first  to  the  privi- 
or"  representation  *  So  universal  were  establishments  of  this  na- 
ture, that  they  have  been  called  ''The  Common  Law  of  Europe." 
From  that  soil  was  transplanted  that  living  germ,  afterwards  so  deeply 
rooteil  in  America. 

Tbw  kind  of  government  was  derived  from  the  robust  principle  of 
German  liberty,  so  averse  from  vesting  without  restraint  the  powers  of 
government  in  one  person  The  correspondence  of  these  governments 
with  the  divisions  of  society,  and  the  deliberation  which  they  enforced 
in  political  action,  as  well  as  the  checks  they  provided  on  the  monarch, 

*  Robertson's  History  of  Charles  V. 


28  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

obtained  the  suffrages  of  philosophical  writers.  According  to  that  plan, 
the  powers  uf  legislation  were  committed  to  the  representatives  of  the 
states  or  orders,  each  being  provided  with  a  separate  voice,  whilst  to  the 
Crown  was  entrusted  the  whole  executive  power,  including  the  disburse- 
ment of  the  revenues,  the  appointment  of  officers,  and  the  command  of 
the  military  forces.  In  addition,  the  executive  was  invested  with  an 
Ute  negative  on  the  legislative  action.  It  was  a  powerful  counter- 
balance to  this  formidable  array,  that  to  the  legislative  1  Dged 
the  exclusive  right  to  raise  revenue;  for  without  money  the  prerogatives 
of  the  executive  power  were  but  little  else  than  baubles.  It  would  have 
required  but  little  foresight  to  predict  what  ensued  from  that  partitio 
of  power.  Fierce  conflicts,  according')',  for  the  revenue  power  every- 
where toot  place,  the  monarch  to  secure  for  the  crown  that  coveted 
privilege,  the  legislative  assembly  to  retain  it. 

However  excellent  in  theory  the  constitution  of  the  feudal  monarchy, 
in  thus  blending  opposing  and  hostile  principles  of  government,  We  have 
been  informed  by  the  authoritative  voice  of  history  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  self-controlling  and  independent  members  did  not  answer  in  ex- 
periment. From  the  want  of  a  balance  of  forces,  as  well  as  a  balance  of 
rights,  an  equipoise  never  to  be  exactly  hit,  or  continued,  the  opposition 
of  parts  in  every  instance,  save  one,  destroyed  that  species  of  govern- 
ment,  and  in  that  single  exception,  those  throned  and  hostile  powers 
exhibited  for  each  other  so  violent  an  antagonism,  and  struggled  each  in 
its  turn  so  fiercely  for  the  supreme  control,  as  to  subject  all  parties,  after 
a  long  era  of  civil  troubles,  to  the  rule  of  a  military  despot. 

Upon  looking  then  .somewhat  curiously  into  the  matter,  not  being  at 
all  satisfied  with  sounding  eulogy,  we  discover  that  the  applauded  theory 
of  the  United  States  Government,  a"bout  which  such  learned  dissertati 
have  been  composed,  turns  out  to  be  the  exploded  plan  of  an  impracticable 
constitution.  The  credulous  multitude  once  were  instructed  that,  the 
lawgivers  of  antiquity  had  received  their  respective  r>»\m  from  the  godsj 
that  Charandos  had  received  his  la  ,vs  for  the  Carthaginians  from  Saturn  ; 
Draco  and  Solon  for  the  Athenians  from  Minerva;  Numa  Pompiliua 
for  the  Romans  from  the  Nymph  JEgeria,  and  Mahomet  the  Alcoran 
from  the  Angel  Gabriel;  but  neither  nistory,  nor  tradition,  nor  the  sibyl- 
line leaves  of  Mr.  Madison,  have  iuformed  posterity  what  nymph  or 
archangel  inspired  the  sages  of  Philadelphia  to  select  as  a  constitution 
for  an  association  of  sovereign  States  the  frame  of  the  Gothic  monarchy. 

Thefconstituent  parts  of  those  establishments  lay  long  inactive,  until  • 
moved  by  the  spirit  of  modern  civilization,  the  angel  that  troubled  the 
pool  of  stagnant  Europe,  when  from  that  stupor  they  awoke,  aud  began 
everywhere  to  operate  and  encroach  on  each  other.     In   the  continental 
kingdoms,  as  soon  as  the  feudal  militia  was  set  aside  to  make  room  for 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY.  29 

standing  armies,  and  that  means  of  coercion  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
kings,  the  old  quarrel  about  the  revenue  power  was  soon  brought  to  a 
close,  very  much  to  the  advantage  of  monarchy. 

In  France,  the  parliaments  had  been  fostered  by  the  liberality  of 
Charlemagne,  and  so  vigorous  did  they  become,  that  at  one  period  of 
their  existence  they  asserted  popular  rights  so  manfully,  as  to  lose 
nothing  by  a  comparison  with  the  resolution  and  energy  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons.  In  the  reign  of  King  John,  who,  in  character, 
resembled  his  English  namesake,  the  States  confronted  him  so  boldly  as 
not  to  suffer  him  to  disburse  the  public  taxes,  but  for  that  duty  appointed 
commissioners  of  their  owq.  But  au  evil  destiny  awaited  them.  In 
France,  as  in  the  other  nations  on  the  Continent,  they  passed  away  with 
the  feudal  system  out  of  which  those  popularassemblies  had  sprung.  In 
the  kingdom  mentioned,  they  perished  by  artifice  or  force,  as  the  em- 
ployment of  the  one  or  the  other  was  found  most  expedient.  But  so 
strongly  cherished  by  the  nation  were  those  assemblies,  that  it  was  dis- 
covered to  be  necessary  in  the  first  place  to  resort  to  the  former.  Be- 
fore the  hunters  could  venture  to  approach  the  lion  with  the  spear,  it 
was  fouud  necessary  first  to  entangle  his  limbs  with  the  net.  The  dagger 
or  the  poison-bowl  would  not  compass  the  end  they  sought;  so  they  had 
to  devise  a  plot  which  required  many  years  to  ripen,  and  draw  "a  long 
concatenation  of  intrigue "  before  they  could  overturn  that  broad- 
bottomed  monarchy. 

Instead  of  the  old  Parliament,  the  ancient  assembly  of  the  States,  a 
new  assembly  or  Vice-Parliament  was  set  on  foot,  which  served  to  lull 
the  people  into  a  false  security,  by  employing  such  insufficient  means  of 
redress  as  remonstrances,  petitions  and  menaces.  But  the  substituiion 
proved  a  fatal  blow.  The  lesser  assemblies  were  never  invested  with 
that  dignity  and  public  weight  which  had  attached  to  the  old  convoca- 
tions. It  has  been  quaintly  observed  of  those  parliaments,  that  they 
exercised  not,  in  their  scarlet  robes,  as  great  power  as  their  ancestors  in 
their  grey  jackets. 

The  crafty  genius  of  Louis  the  Eleventh  destroyed  the  substantial 
power  of  the  States,  and  in  his  own  person,  for  the  first  time  in  France, 
united  the  purse  and  the  sword.  The  presence  of  an  English  army  in 
France  had  postponed  a  contest  between  the  Throne  and  the  States;  but 
after  Charles  the  Seventh  had  expelled  the  English,  his  son  and  succes- 
sor was  left  at  liberty  to  engage  in  that  enterprise.  When  Louis  the 
Eleventh  became  king,  he  found,  he  said,  the  Crown  in  a  state  of 
pupilage,  but  it  should  with  him  attain  its  majority.  There  could  not 
have  been  selected  for  the  wicked  purpose  of  conspiring  against  the 
liberties  of  his  country  a  more  accomplished  character  than  this  prince. 
"  Perjuries  and  poisons,"  it  has  been  said,  "  were  his  ordinary  weapons, 


30  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

yet  none  so  devout,  none  so  superstitious,  none  made  the  like  largesses 
to  the  Church.  Rut  his  masses  and  his  pilgrimages  did  always  portend 
some  strange,  horrid  murder  about  to  be  e>. 

Louis  had  learned  from  his  own  experience,  that  without  a  trained 
military  devoted  to  his  service,  he  could  not,  in  the  contest  with  the 
Parliament,  count  on  final  triumph;  for  in  the  civil  war  with  which,  in  £k 
the  earlier  p.irt  of  his  reign,  he  had  to  contend,  called  the  War  of  the 
Public  Good,  he.had  ascertained  that  his  Frank  Archers,  who  had  set- 
tled h  imea  and  sympathies  for  the  proprh  tary  class,  he  could  not,  in  his 
enterprises  against  the  popular  liberty,  by  any  means  rely  on.  The 
Frank,  Archers  were  accordingly  thrown  aside,  ami  the  vagabonds  and 
loiterers  of. the  towns  enlisted  by  beat  of  drum.  These,  in  their  turn, 
were  soon  discarded,  not.  proving  sufficiently  supple  to  the  royal  purpose, 
and  a  body  of  mercenary  Switzers  taken  into  the  King's  pay.  The 
temple  of  despotism  was  then  complete.  From  thenceforward  the  King 
collected  taxes  without  the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  the  era  of  arbi- 
trary government  begun  in  France.  A  writer,  about  the 'middle'  of  the 
last  century,  says:  "The  Parliament  of  France  seems  quite  antiquated 
and  subdued;  the  ghost  or  shadow  of  the  defunct  has  appeared  three  or 
four  times  since  Louis  the  Eleventh;  but  to  revive  that  assembly  in  its 
full  and  perfect  vigor,  requires  a  miracle  like  the  resurrection."  So 
that  we  may  date  the  demise  of  the  parliamentary  sovereignty  in  Fiance 
from  Louis  the  Eleventh.  It  is  in  England  only,  that  the  ancient, 
generous,  manly  government  of  Europe  survives,  and  continues  in  its 
original  lustre*md  perfection. 

One  after  another  in  the  different  countries  of  Europe  these  assem- 
blies fell  into  disuse, -or  were  allowed  only  occasionally  to  meet.  The 
religious  wars  which  raged  so  furiously  in  that  country  destroyed  them 
in  Germany,  whilst  they  were  openly  put  down  by  the  bayonet  in  Spain. 

Lord  Macaulay  expresses  the  opinion  that  on  the  continent  those 
popular  bodies  could  have  been  maintained,  even  after  the  introduction 
of  standing  armies,  if  adequate  constitutional  securities  had  been  taken 
against  their  being  used  for  improper  purposes  by  the  executive  power. 
He  does  not  indicate  the  nature  of  those  securities,  and  it  is  certain  that 
none  could  have  been  devised  that  would  have  proved  of  permanent 
value,  and  have  left  the  crowned  heads  in  possession  of  their  constitu- 
tional prerogatives.  A  mutiny  bill  and  a  responsible  ministry,  the  in- 
ventions of  English  liberty,  might  have  proved  sufficient,  but  they  wore 
based  upon  such  a  revolution  as  would  have  been  tantamount  to  an  over- 
throw of  monarchical  power.  No  device  could  have  been  framed  that 
would  have  reconciled  those  inimical  principles  contained  in  the  Gothic  ' 
monarchy,  and  made  them  consistent  with  regular  government  This 
was  the  opinion  of  the  leaders  of  the  French  devolution  of  1789. 


LTTTERS    TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  31 

After  an  interval  of  more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  the  States-Gene- 
ral, on  the  5th  day  of  May,  1789,  assembled  in  Paris — a  period  for  ever 
memorable  in  the  annals  of  Europe.  Then  did  the  States  more  than  re- 
taliate on  the  Throne  the  signal  injuries  the  Throne  had  inflicted  on  the 
States.  Yet  had  the  States-General  met  to  reform,  not  to  abolish  the 
monarchy,  whatever  English  writers  say,  as  the  instructions  of  the  depu- 
ties fully  prove.  But  the  deep-seated  and  incurable  opposition  of  the  com- 
mons to  the  orders  of  the  nobles  and  clergy  at  once  showed  itself.  An 
embittered  and  prolonged  struggle  ensued.  The  legislative  power  of  the 
Privileged  Orders  was  suppressed.  The  commons  elaimed  to  represent 
the  nation,  as  they  might  well  do;  for  they  had  so  greatly  risen  in  the 
scale  of  social  importance,  and  at  the  same  time  in  wealth  and  numbers? 
as  to  comprehend  nearly  the  entire  nation — all  the  useful,  industrious 
and  enlightened  classes.  That  powerful  body  of  democracy  could  not 
tolerate  in  the  same  government  the  presence  of  two  distinctly  marked 
bodies  of  aristocracy,  endowed  with  peculiar  privileges,  oppressively  and 
jealously  guarded.  Thus  fell  one  of  the  persons  of  that  political  Trinity  ; 
for  the  Tiers  Etat  declared  that  they  would  not  tolerate  a  veto  between 
itself  and  the  Throne.  Royal  power  they  next  assaulted,  ami  they 
reduced  it  to  an  entire  subordination  to  the  Legislature.  But  the  politi- 
cal changes  did  not  stop  here.  The  dregs  of  society  were  stirred  iind 
rose  to  the  top,  and  the  national  assembly  destroyed  royalty  and  finally 
itself.  Thus  closed  a  drama  begun,  in  innovation,  prosecuted  in  murder,* 
and  closed  in  suicide. 

The  fate  of  mixed   government  on   the  Continent  o/  Europe  has  not 
been  such  as  to  invite  a  prudent  people  to  imitate  that  example. 


*  When  Louis  the  Sixteenth  opened  the  States-General,  covered  with  the 
crown  jewels,  Mirabeau  observed  to  those  around  him,  "  Behold  the  victim 
adorned  for  the  sacrifice." 


32  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN   TUE   ARMY. 


LETTER  VII. 


On  account  of  the  insular  position  of  England,  the  fate  of  feudal 
monarchy  there  was  different.  There  no  standing  army  was  placed  .sub- 
ject to  the  Crown,  and  there  alone  the  Crown  did  not  usurp  the  supreme 
coutrol.  Indeed,  events  in  that  couutry  took  a  different  direction, 
physical  power  being  placed  in  the  opposite  scale.  The  monarch, 
instead  of  placing  his  foot  on  the  prostrate  estates,  wa?,  from  the  sheer 
force  of  necessity,  compelled  to  surrender,  contracting  only  to  retain  his 
court  pageantries,  his  crown  and  royal  revenues;  but  in  all  things  which 
concerned  the  power  of  his  office,  consenting  to  be  the  obedient  instru- 
ment of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  moral  of  that  story  is  instructive, 
and  teaches  us  how  much  of  accident,  how  much  of  God's  grace,  how 
much  of  the  golden  ores  of  human  prudence,  are  compounded  in  the 
grand  qld  government  of  England. 

It  ought  not  to  surprise  us  that,  when  William  the  Norman  brought 
over  with  him  and  his  mailed  warriors  the  feudal  system,  as  most 
advantageous  in  monopolizing  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  country,  and 
keeping  in  subjection  the  sons  of  the  soil,  there  should  have  fallen  to 
the  Crown  great  riches  and  authority,  nor  that  a  large  portion  of  each 
should  have  bean  engrossed  by  the  nobles,  nor  that  the  conquered 
Saxons  should  have  been  divested  of  all  privileges  (as  what  conquered 
people  has  not?)  except  the  naked  boon  of  life  and  the  service  of 
foreign  masters.  At  that  day  there  were  no  Commons,  no  third  estate. 
All  were  master  and  slave — the  King  and  great  feudatories  and  great 
clergy,  the  lords  temporal  and  lords  spiritual,  looking  down  in  sullen 
tyranny  on  their  fettered  bondmen.  The  Commons,  the  proud,  ambi- 
'tious,  intelligent  and  indomitable  Commons,  with  their  heroic  love  of 
liberty,  yet  tempered  always  with  a  respect  for  order  and  a  veneration  for 
authority,  existed  not.  They  lay  then  in  Norman  chains  and  did  not 
cast  them  off  for  many  ages. 

But  the  spoilers,  the  King  and  the  great  Barons,  could  not  live  for- 
ever in  peace,  nor  indeed  for  any  long  time,  and  quarrels  about 
supremacy  took  place  between  them.  One  epoch  is  marked  by  the 
great  Charter  which  at  Runnytnede  they  compelled  King  John  to  sign. 
But  the  feud  still  waxed  hot,  the  Crown  seeking  to  diminish  the  power 
of  the  great  Barons,  some  of  them  almost  its  equal;  the  Barons  seeking 
to  establish  such  an  influence  over  the  Crown  as  to  render  their  order 
the   supreme   power,   ruling    England   with   the    firm   sceptre   of    an 


LETTERS   TO    AS   OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY.  33 

aristocracy,  holding  under  them  a  servile  and  conquered  populace,  and 
a  King  -with  only  a  permitted  state,  a  sort  of  doge.  The  great  question 
■was  tried,  for  the  broil  came  to  a  positive  and  final  issue,  and  the  cham- 
pions were  worthy  to  represent  their  respective  parties.  The  King, 
young,  chivalrous,  able,  popular,  who  scorned  to  wear  a  dependent 
Crown,  and  old  Warwick  the  King-maker.  The  King,  no  match  for  tho 
doughty  old  Earl,  was  driven  to  seek  the  people's  alliance.  -Here,  then, 
the  skies  began  to  brighten  with  the  approaching  dawn  of  English 
freedom.  The  respectability  of  the  position  of  the  Commons  was 
assured  as  soon  as  one  of  the  combatants,  in  order  himself  to  escape  the 
yoke,  had  found  it  expedient  to  court  the  people  and  balance  them 
against  the  power  of  the  other.  Old  Warwick,  for  so  the  gods  had 
decreed,  went  down  in  the  tourney.  Soon  after,  the  Crown  rose  to  an 
almost  undisputed  supremacy  in  England,  and  the  monarchy  settled  on 
it<  foundation  firmly,  and,  as  men  thought,  securely  forever. 

Under  the  auspices  of  the  royal  authority  the  government  remained, 
but  sometimes  oscillating  violently  to  and  fro,  and  sometimes  heavinf 
deeply  with  the  bursting  of  internal  fires,  until  after  the  despotic,  yet 
popular  and  eminently  successful,  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  last  and 
greatest  of  the  Tudor  line. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Barons  strove  with  the  Crown  for  the  absolute 
rule.  We  will  now  see  that  the  two  estates,  in  the  final  act  of  that 
eventful  drama,  with  combined  powers,  the  Commons  leading  the  way 
and  always  the  priocipal  combatant,  struggle  with  the  Crown,  and,  as 
the  final  result,  place  themselves  in  the  ascendant,  and  build  up  the  great 
Parliamentary  Government  of  Great  Britain,  the  glory  of  that  kingJom 
and  of  all  times. 


34  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN   TEE   ARMY. 


LETTER  VIII. 


The  union  of  the  Crowns  of  England  and  Scotland,  an  event  pre- 
pared by  the  politic  forecast  of  Henry  the  Seventh,*  at  this  time  oc- 
curred, in  the  person  of  the  great  grandson  of  Margaret,  the  daughter 
of  that  monarch.  The  legislative  union,  or  incorporation  of  the  king- 
doms, so  earnestly  desired  and  recfommended  by  King  James,  was  post- 
poned to  a  later  period.  This  increase  of  weight  and  dignity  to  the 
Crown,  added  to  the  submission  of  Ireland  and  the  great  reputation  for 
wisdom  which  the  Scottish  monarch  had  brought  with  him,  appears  to 
have  roused  into  a  strong  and  steady  activity  that  great  party  which  re- 
garded with  apprehension  the  growth  of  royal  influence  and  power. 
The  new  King  was  hardly  acknowledged  and  proclaimed,  when  Parlia- 
ment began  to  operate  in  this  direction. 

The  critical  state  of  the  kingdom  with  respect  to  external  enemies 
and  internal  foes  alone  had  prevented  this  conflict  from  having  been 
begun  during  the  preceding  reign.  Elizabeth  had  mounted  a  throne 
just  vacated  by  a  Catholic  princess,  to  reign,  as  many  contended,  over 
a  Catholic  people. f  The  nation  was  in  peril  from  the  fleets  and  armies 
of  Spain,  and  the  life  of  the  Queen  from  conspiracies,  which  had  their 
ramifications  in  every  Catholic  country  of  Europe.  It  was  doubtful 
which  religion  would  in  the  end  prevail,  which  faction  predominate,  and 
it  was  necessary  for  all  who  wished  well  to  a  Protestant  succession  to 

*  Bacon's  History  of  Henry  VII. 

-j-  It  is  asserted  that  the  great  change  in  religion,  under  Elisabeth,  was 
carried  by  six  votes,  and  passed  in  a  single  session;  that  "  a  superstitious '> 
practice  (the  striking  of  the  breast  with  an  exclamation)  observed  at  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  Host,  was  abrogated  by  a  single  vote,  and  that  no  greater  majority 

decided  on  the  abolishment  of  parts  of  the  ceremonial 

On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  the  Romanists  were  so  numerous,  that  one  of  tho 

English  historians  asserts  that  they  formed  two-thirds  of  the  nation 

She  deemed  it  advisable  that  a  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  should  place  the  Crown 
upon  her  head,  and  in  her  royal  councils  Catholics  were  mixed  with  Anti- 
Catholics.  The  Queen,  from  the  first,  looked  forward  to  that  oomformity  in  the 
national  religion,  which,  to  enforce  afterwards,  caused  the  despair  of  our  states- 
men, the  unhappiness  of  the  people,  and  the  fall  of  the  government. 

But  if  Elizabeth  were  studious  of  the  feelings  of  her  Papists  on  several  nice 
points,  she  received  no  indulgence  from  them  :  that  sort  of  gratitude  could  not 
be  returned  by  an  implacable  and  immutable  power. — D'lSRAELI,  Wat.  Charles 
I.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  1-19-51. 


LETTERS   TO    AN   OFFICER   IN   THE    ARMY.  35 

strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Queen,  for  upon  her  life  and  the  vigor  and 
success  of  her  administration  depended  the  success  of  the  Protestant 
cause.  It  was  evident  that  this  was  no  time  to  raise  questions  which 
would  divide  Protestant  subjects  from  a  Protestant  Queen.  The  Pu- 
ritans, who  constituted  so  large  an  ingredient  of  the  Parliamentary 
party,  were  restrained  by  such  considerations,  notwithstanding  the  vig- 
orous persecution  with  which  they  were  visited. 

But  when  the  King  of  Scots  succeeded  to  the  throne,  the  condition 
of  the  country  had  materially  changed.  The  power  of  Spain  had 
diminished,  whilst  that  of  France,  under  the  genius  and  courage  of 
Henry  the  Fourth,  a  cordial  ally  of  England,  had  risen  to  be  a  counter- 
weight in  the  balance  of  Europe,  lleligious  animosities,  too,  had 
become  greatly  mollified,  indeed,  to  so  great  an  extent,  as  to  flatter 
James  with  the  hope  that  by  dexterous  management  and  the  adroit 
employment  of  king-craft,  of  which  he  considered  himself  so  great  a 
master,  he  would  be  able  to  reunite,  as  far  as  his  own  domiuions  were 
concerned,  the  two  religions  which  so  unhappily  divided  Europe.  It 
seems  to  have  been  the  fortune  of  this  monarch  to  have  entertained  the 
largest  and  most  philanthropic  designs,  both  in  Church  and  State,  but 
to  have  lacked  the  ability  to  carry  any  of  them  into  effect. 

Now  was  to  begin  the  final  struggle  between  the  antagonistic  princi- 
ples in  the  feudal  government,  and  mankind  were  to  see  whether  the 
kingly  principle,  victorious  everywhere  else  in  Europe,  was  to  be  victo- 
rious too  in  the  little  continent  of  Great  Britain.  Such  a  catastrophe 
the  leaders  of  the  Parliamentary  cause  were  determined  to  avert. 
.  They  embarked  warily  yet  resolutely  upon  the  great  enterprise  of 
abridging  the  Prerogative  and  settling  the  privileges  of  the  two  Houses 
on  a  surer  basis. 

Fortunate  it  was  for  the  liberties  of  mankind,  that,  at  this  critical  pe. 
riod,  the  interests  of  human  freedom  were  committed  to  the  hands  of  some 
of  the  greatest  men  who  have  flourished  in  British  history.  The  Consti. 
tution  had  beyond  question  vested  in  the  Crown  many  great  prerogatives, 
which  from  the  Conquest  it  had  habitually  employed  and  which,  fully 
enjoyed,  would  have  rendered  the  monarch  absolute.  He  had  the  right 
to  declare  war,  appoint  officers,  direct  hostilities  and  conclude  peace — 
in  short,  the  whole  war  power  in  its  extensive  branches.  A  reasonable 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  without  doubt,  would  place  at  his 
disposal  the  means  necessary  to  give  effect  to  the  grant  of  powers  when- 
ever he  might  in  his  constitutional  discretion  exercise  them.  Parlia- 
ment, then,  according  to  this  view,  would  be  obliged,  by  an  imperative 
constitutional  duty,  without  hesitation  or  enquiry,  to  place  at  the  royal 
dispofal  the  necessary  means.  It  had  not  been  allowed  by  the  Consti- 
tution to  participate  in  the  principal  power,  and  it  could  not  in  equity 


36  LETTERS    TO    AN   OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY. 

lay  hold  on  subordinate  and  accidental  means  in  its  hands  to  restrain 
the  King.  Such  was  the  view  of  tlie  Court  party,  and  if  it  could  have 
been  effectuated  would  have  rendered  the  throne  as  absolute  as  any 
Stoarfc  or  Plantagenet  could  desire.  But  the  Constitution  had  another 
side,  not. so  agreeable  to  kings,  he  general  powers  of  legisla- 

tion, a  discretionary  power  over  the  purse  of  the  nation  was 
the  hands  of  the  Parliament.      With  mt  money,  not  only  coald  not  war 
be  waged  and  treaties  and  alliances  made,  but  the  most  n  func- 

tions of  the  executive  government  could  not  be  1.     According 

to  this,  which  was  the  view  insisted  upon  by  the  Parliamentary  party, 
the  revenue  power  became  the  government  and  could  be  made  to  al 
all  others,  and  either  destroy  the  legal  prerogatives  of  the  monarch,  or 
compel   him   to  exercise   them  according  to   the   pleasure  of  the   two 
Hoo,  mr 

This  subordination  ef  the  prerogative  was,  after  many  civil  troubles, 
in  fact  accomplished,  and  is  what  Lord  Macaulay  means  when  he 
that  the  history  of  the  British  Constitution,  from  the  death  of  Eliza- 
beth, is  but  the  history  of  a  natural  development  of  the  legitimate 
powers  of  the  Parliament.  His  Lordship  is  doubtless  right,  if  we  are 
to  look  only  at  the  inherent  force  of  the  money  power  as  vested  in  the 
Parliament,  and  must  allow  no  weight  to  the  argument  which  modifies 
and  limits  that  power  in  matters  involving  the  life  of  the  Prerogative. 
But  if  the  despotic  schemes  of  Charles  the  First  had  succeeded,  and 
Wentworth  had  been  able  to  realize  his  Thorough,  a  name  by  which  he 
called  his  plan  for  raising  and  supporting  a  standing  army,  the  Crown 
would  have  been  able  tp  give  life  and  vigor  to  all  its  prerogatives  in  . 
their  full  extent.  The  lion  then  would  have  become  the  painter,  and 
some  historian,  as  philosophic,  but  not  as  elegant  and  striking  as  Lord 
Macaulay,  would  have  informed  us,  that  the  steps  by  which  the  English 
throne  had  risen  to  an  undisputed  ascendancy  and  crushed  the  insolence 
of  the  Parliament,  were  according  to  the  true  nature  of  the  English 
Constitution,  and  that  the  potent  medicines  prepared  and  administered 
by  the  subtle  and  energetic  Wentworth  had  preserved  that  constitution 
by  removing  some  anomalies  and  obstructions  in  the  administration  of 
the  government.  Such  was  the  British  Constitution  when  it  was  copied 
by  the  philosophers  of  America — such  the  attitude  of  the  model  when 
its  form  was  transferred  to  the  breathing  canvas. 

As  early  as  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  James  (1G05),  the  Com- 
mons addressed  to  the  King  what  they  style  an  "  Humble  Apology,"  in 
assertion  of  their  privileges.  They  apprehended  the  stealthy  hand  as 
much  as  the  open  violence  of  power,  and  announce  some  general  prin- 
ciples applicable  to  all  time. 

"  What  cause  we  your  poor  Commons  have/'  say  these  apologists, 


LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER   IN   THE  ARMY.  37 

"  to  watch  over  our  privileges,  is  manifest  in  itself  to  all  men.  The 
prerogatives  of  princes  may  easily  and  do  daily  grow.  The  privileges 
of  the  subject  are  for  the  most  part  at  an  everlasting  stand.  They  may 
be  by  good  providence  and  care  preserved,  but  being  once  lost  are  not 
recovered  but  with  much  disquiet.  If  good  kings  were  immortal  as 
well  as  kingdoms,  to  strive  for  privilege  were  but  vanity  perhaps,  and 
folly;  but  seeing  the  same  God  who  in  his  great  mercy  hath  given  us  a 
wise  king  and  religious,  doth  also  sometimes  permit  hypocrites  and  ty- 
rants in  his  displeasure,  and  for  the  sins  of  the  people;  and  from  hence 
hath  the  desire  of  rights,  privileges  and  liberties,  both  for  nobles  and 
commons,  had  its  first  original;  by  whish  an  harmonica]  and  stable 
state  is  framed;  each  member  under  the  head  enjoying  that  right,  and 
performing  that  duty,  which  for  the  honor-of  the  head  and  the  happi- 
ness of  the  whole  is  requisite."  (Pari.  History,  vol.  1,  pp.  1034-5.) 
This  very  able  State  paper  was  prepared  by  Sir  Francis  P>aeon  and  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  two  men  of  the  greatest  parts  and  learning  in  the  king- 
dom. 

The  line  of  action  adopted  by  those  leaders  was  skilfully  selected  :  it 
was  to  vindicate  and  clear  from  all  controversy  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  Parliament,  which  had  suffered  much  from  neglect,  and  innova- 
tion. Thus  strengthened  and  from  this  vantage  ground,  they  entered 
deliberately  on  the  groat  enterprise  of  confining  within  a  smaller  com- 
pass the  prerogative,  and  finally,  the  scope  and  end  of  their  policy,  of 
subordinating  that  department  of  the  government  to  the  legislature. 
To  accomplish  this  purpose,  a  studied  design  on  the  part  of  the  parlia- 
mentary leaders  was  very  early  betrayed,  but  not  fully  and  clearly 
developed  until  the  subsequent  reign.  The  fate  of  the  mixed  form  of 
government  on  the  continent  had  instructed  them  that  some  funda- 
mental change  was  necessary;  for  that  those  two  independent  authori- 
ties could  not  stand  together.  Either  the  executive  would  preponderate 
and  draw  the  parliament  after  it,  a  captive  to  register  its  decrees,  or  the 
parliament  must  take  the  initiative  and  subject  the  executive  govern- 
ment. 

The  money  power,  so  comprehensive  in  its  applications,  was  the  instru- 
ment with  which  the  Houses  proposed  to  work  in  the  aecomplishment 
of  their  beneficent  design.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  the  history  of 
this  great  quarrel,  that  it  was  at  the  instance  of  Went  Worth  himself, 
then  a  zealous  patriot,  that  Parliament  adopted  the  policy,  that  tjriev- 
anr,^  ami  siipji/y  should  go  hajid  in  hand  together,  a  suggestion  that 
came  back  to  plague  the  inventor.  Mr.  Hume  thinks  that  it  marked  a 
constitutional  epoch,  when  the  King  called  to  his  councils,  from  the 
parliamentary  party,  Wentworth  and  Noy.  Had  their  call  to  the  Cabi- 
net truly  indicated   that  the  King  had  determined  to  conform  his  ad- 


33  LETTERS   TO    AX    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY. 

ministration  to  the  wishes  of  Parliament,  the  observation  of  the  histo- 
rian would  have  been  just;  but  such  was  not  the  case.  It  very  soon 
appeared  that  the  introduction  of  those  leading  characters  into  his 
council  was  on  account  of  their  secret  apostacy  from  their  party, 
for  which  their  old  friends  never  forgave  them,  and  which  doubt- 
kindlgd  bo  a  greater  heat  the  zeal  of  the  Commons  in  the  ink 
iment  of  Wentworth,  after  he  had  been  made  Marl  of  Strafford. 
Tlie  deep  resentment  ever  after  entertained  against  Strafford  and  Noy 
by  their  former  associates,  is  manifested  in  this  extract  from  a  sj 
of  Lord  George  Digby,  afterwards  Earl  of  Bristol,  on  the  Triennial 
Bill:  "Let  me  appeal,"   sai  those  who  were  present  in  this 

House  at  the   agitation  of  the  Petition  of  Right;   and   let   them    tell 
themselves  truly,  of  whose  promotion  to  the  management  of  affairs  do 
think  the  gen  uld,  at  that  time,  have  had  better  hopes, 

than  of  Mr.  Noy  and  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth;  both  having  been  at 
that  lime  and  in  that  business,  as  I  have  heard,  most  keen  and  active 
patriots,  and  the  latter  of  them,  to  the  eternal  aggravation  of  his  infa. 
mous  treachery  to  the  commonwealth  be  it  spoken,  the  first  mover  and 
insister  to  have  this  clause  added  to  the  Petition  of  Light,  '  That,  for 
the  comfort  and  safety  of  his  subjects,  his  Majesty  would  be  pleased  to 
declare  his  will  and  pleasure  that  all  his  ministers  should  serve  him  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm.'  •  And  yet,  Mr.  Speaker, 
to  whom  now  can  all  the  inundations  upon  our  liberties,  under  pretence 
of  law,  and  the  late  shipwreck  at  once  of  all  our  property,  be  attributed 
more  than  to  Noy,  and  all  those  other  mischiefs  whereby  this  monarchy 
hath  been  brought  almost  to  the  brink  of  destruction,  so  much  as  to 
that  Grand  Apostate  to  the  Commonwealth,  the  now  Lieutenant  of  Ire- 
land— (Wentworth.)?  The  first  I  hope  God  has  forgiveu  in  the  other 
world;  and  the  latter  must  not  hope  to  be  pardoned  in  this,  till  he 
be  despatched  to  the  other.  Let  every  man  but  consider  those  men  as 
once  they  were." 

It  was  with  great  truth  that  the  court  party  complained  that  the  cry 
of  "grievances"  was  employed  as  a  subterfuge  and  shelter  for  the  new 
principles  sought  to  be  introduced.  It  was  necessary  for  the  friends  of 
the  estates  to  fight  under  a  mask,  and  this  was  the  one  they  selected  by 
which  to  rescue  England  from  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown.  The  his- 
tory of  England,  in  consequence,  during  the  reign  of  the  Stuarts,  is 
principally  occupied  with  devices  on  the  part  of  the  Crown  to  raise 
money  without  the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  the  strenuous  efforts  of 
the  Parliament  to  bafiie  these  efforts  and  confine  the  King  to  such  sup- 
plies as  they  might  choose  to  grant.  Upon  this  hinge  the  controversy 
turned.  If  he  could  procure  a  sufficient  revenue  independent  of  par- 
liamentary supplies,  he  would  find  it  no  difficult  matter  to  keep  on  foot 
such  a  body  of  troops  as  would  serve  to  coerce  the  nation. 


LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER  IN   THE   ARMY.  39 

Among  the  expedients  resorted  to  by  the  Crown,  during  this  troubled 
period,  to  raise  a  revenue  independent  of  parliamentary  grant,  one 
deserves  our  particular  attention,  not  only  because  it  has  been  generally 
overlooked  by  the  popular  historians  of  this  era,  but  because  of  its  inti- 
mate connection  with  important  events  in  American  history  and  an 
interesting  questiou  in  our  own  constitutional  law.  For  a  long  time 
the  Crown  was  supposed  to  be  the  main  bond  of  union  between 
the  American  Colonies  and  the  British  Empire.  It  was  an  undoubted 
prerogative  of  the  King  "to  regulate  commerce;"  as  well  the  com- 
merce of  the  British  Isles  as  the  commerce  of  the  Colonics.  As  a 
means  of  regulation,  he  claimed  the  power  to  impose  duties  upon  trade — 
a  dangerous  invasion  upon  the  revenue  power  of  the  Parliament.  This 
pretension  was  hotly  contested  by  the  parliamentary  party  in  the  reign 
of  James  the  First.  It  became  a  question  of  judicial  investigation. 
Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  servile  judges,  it  was  ultimately  deter- 
mined adversely  to  the  regal  claim.  Had  the  King  been  able  to  sub- 
stantiate in  its  full  breadth  this  pretension,  there  would  have  resulted 
th.at  dangerous  union  of  the  purse  and  sword  which  the  advocates  of 
constitutional  liberty  were  at  such  pains  to  prevent.  The  Crown 
also  attempted  to  raise  a  revenue  by  the  same  means  and  under 
the  same  pretexts  on  colonial  trade;  but  as  in  the  preceding  case  was 
defeated.  The  determination  was,  that  the  royal  prerogative  to  regu- 
late commerce  did  not  authorize  the  imposition  of  duties,  but  that  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  language  was  to  empower  the  King  to 
interdict,  either  from  the  colonial  or  the  home  ports,  particular  branches 
of  foreign  commerce,  or  the  commerce  of  particular  foreign  nations.* 

The  grand  object,  for  which  the  heads  of  the  popular  party  strove, 
could  be  effected  by  a  very  simple  alteration  in  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment, leaving,  in  all  other  respects,  the  royal  office  untouched.  Among 
the  King's  unquestioned  prerogatives  was  the  power  to  appoint  his  min- 
isters, except  through  whom  he  could  not  perform  his  regal  functions. 
Parliament,  except  by  impeachment,  could  exert  no  influence  over  their 
official  conduct,  and  impeachment  was  a  very  different  sort  of  responsi- 
bility from  that  at  which  they  aimed — a  systematic  supervision  over  all 
administrative  acts.  To  effect  this  a  direct  responsibility  to  Parliament 
was  to  be  established. 

*  This  was  the  ascertained  meaning  of  those  words  when  they  were  intro- 
duced into  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  which  Hamilton,  in  the  Fede- 
ralist, broadly  admits.  When  the  Confederate  Congress  comes  to  exercise  the 
power  to  regulate  commerce,  the  interpretation  of  this  language  will  become  an 
interesting  question.  Ancient  records  will  then  be  searched  with  particularity- 
See  Hallam'n  Constitutional  History,  and  legal  decisions  there  referred  to  ;  also' 
Edwards'1   Wesl  Indies. 


40  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY. 

Accordingly,  after  the  withdrawal,  or  flight  of  Charles  I.  from  his 
capital,  the  Houses  sent  him,  digested  into  articles,  the  terras  on  which 
tiny  wouM  nirree  to  a  restoration  of  the  royal  authority  and  pacification- 
Those  demands  were  :  that  he  should  surrender  not  only  all  usurped 
powers,  hut  also  some  of  which  the  throne  had  ever  been  in  undisputed 
possession.  "  No  minister  must  be  appointed,  no  peer  created,  without 
the  consent  of  the  Houses.     Above  all,  tl  n  the 

supreme  military  authority,  which  from   time   1    _)ond   all  had 

appertained  to  the  regal  office." 

But  the  King  chose,  rather  than  submit  to  terms  so  ignominious,  to 
try  the  appeal  to  battle,  lie  said,  should  he  sign  these  conditions  he 
would  lose  all  true,  all  real  power,  and  be  "but  the  outside,  but  the 
picture,  but.  the  sign  of  a  king."  Yet  that  state  of  vassalage  was  in 
.store  for  the  crown;  but  the  consummation  was  not  yet,  nor  until  the 
Scottish  Hue  had  ceased  to  occupy  the  throne  of  England. 

Upon  this  part,  of  English  history  Lord  Macaulay  observes  :  "The 
change  which  the  Houses  proposed  to  make  in  our  institutions,  though 
it  seems  exorbitant,  when  distinctly  set  forth  and  digested  into  articles 
of  capitulation,  really  amounts  to  little  more  than  the  change  which,  in 
the  next  generation,  was  effected  by  the  Revolution.  It  is  true  that,  at 
the  Revolution,  the  sovereign  was  not  deprived  by  law  of  the  power  of 
naming  his  ministers;  but  it  is  equally  true  that,  since  the  Revolution, 
no  ministry  has  been  able  to  remain  in  office  six  months  in  opposition 
to  the  sense  of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  true  that  the  sove 
still  possesses  the  power  of  creating  peers,  and  the  more  important 
power  of  the  sword;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  in  the  exercise  of  these 
powers  the  sovereign  has,  ever  since  the  Revolution,  been  guided  by 
advisers  who  possess  the  confidence  of  the  representatives  of  the  nation. 
In  fact,  the  leaders  of  the  Roundhead  party  in  Kill',  and  the  statesmen 
who,  about  a  half  a  century  later,  effected  the  Revolution,  had  exactly 
the  same  object  in  view.  That  object,  was  to  terminate  the  contest 
between  the  Crown  and  Parliament  by  giving  to  the  Parliament  the 
supremo  control  over  the  executive  administration.  The  statesmen  of 
the  Revolution  effected  this  indirectly  by  changing  the  dynasty.  The 
Roundheads  of  1642,  being  unable  to  change  the  dynasty,  were  com- 
pelled to  take  a  direct  course  to  their  end." 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN    THE  ARMY.  41 


LETTER  IX. 

This  imperfect  retrospect  has  afc  least  instructed  us  in  the  extreme  in- 
stability of  the  clasA,of  mixed  governments.  In  Great  Britain,  where 
alone  it  has  had  the  appearance  of  success,  we  have  ascertained  that  the 
old  collision  of  parts  ensued,  antkihat  the  result  has  been  the  supreme 
ascendancy  of  one  of  those  feudal  orders.  The  difference  consists  in 
the  use  that  has  been  made  of  victory.  Elsewhere  the  victory  was  em- 
ployed by  the  triumphant  party  in  the  extirpation  of  opponents  and 
rivals,  but  in  England  the  victor  was  content  with  a  constitutional  supe- 
riority, the  others  being  allowed  to  retain  their  constitutional  existence, 
and  even  their  rauk  and  the  symbols  of  power.  To  this  moderation  in 
triumph  is  the  existence  of  the  English  Constitution,  as  we  know  it, 
now  referable. 

Nor  is^he  continued  participation  of  the  House  of  Peers  in  the  ]< 
latinu  of  the  empire  a  contradiction  to  what  has  been  just  affirmed.     It 
is  rather  a  confirmation  of  its  truth.     The  vital  energies  of  the  British 
system  reside  in  the  lower  House  of  Parliament.     With  the  appn 
tion  of  the  Lords  they  exercise  the  sovereign  powers  of  legislation,  and 
through  a  ininist^  responsible  to  them,  and  who  hold  their  seats  dining 
their  good  pleasure,  they  control  the.  administration.      The   Peei 
times  venture  to  dissent  from  the  Commons,  but  in  respect  to  all  q-      - 
tions  which  rouse  and  divide  the  nation,  they  have  always  receded.     But 
another  principle  must  be  considered  before  it  can   be  explained 
the  House  of  Nobles  in  England,  amid  all  mutations,  was  not  deprived 
of  it§  existence,  but  was  coutiuued  in  the  discharge  of  its  constitut.ii  i    1 
functions. 

In  the  silent  lapse  of  years  the  privileged,  orders  have  long  since  lost 
many  of  the  distinctive  traits  of  an  Aristocracy,  indeed  all  those  traits 
which  render  such  an  order  hateful  to  the  people.  The  House  of  Lords 
has  been  undergoing  a  process  of  assimilation  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons tli rough  a  long  period  of  time,  and  it  is  in  this  homogeneity  -that 
we  must  find  the  explanation  of  the  concord  which  reigus  between 
them,  and  their  harmonious  co-operation.  The  old  Baronial,  Anglo- 
Norman  nobility  almost  wholly  perished  in  the  war  of  the  Roses,  and  a 
race  with  stronger  English,  if  you  choose,  Plebeian  affinities,  suc- 
ceeded them.  Fresh  blood,  too,  has  been  infused,  by  new  patents  of 
nobility,  into  the  old  stock.  You  have  observed  in  the  civil  distrac- 
tions to  which   England   has  been  subjected,  the  strong  popular   or 


42  LETTERS    TO    AN   OFFICER    IN   ME   ARMY. 

national  sympathies  that  .the  privileged  class  has  id  more  modern  times 
exhibited.  It  has  been  no  unfrequent  occurrence  that  popular  leaders 
have  been  furnished  by  that  i 

But  whilst  the  nobility  have  laid  aside  their  repulsive  aristocratic 
res,  the  House  of  Commons  continued  to  rise  in  respectability  and 
importance,  rendering  an  approximation  to  a  common  standard  more 
;  Almost  as  much  old  blood  and  long  entailed  property 

;  ind  now  in  the  lower  as  in  the  upper  House  of  Parliament.  Indeed 
the  former,  so  far  from  representing  the  democratic  clement  of  the 
i       ish  nation,  is  one  of  the  .  ocratie  of  assemblies.     It  repre- 

sents the  religion,  the  character,  the  talent  and  the  great  mass  of  the 
!  bh  of  the  nation  ;  and  if  radicalism  has  ever  been  able  to  raise  its 
shrill  voice  on  that  floor,  it  has  never  been  able  to  disturb  for  a  moment 
the  equilibrium  of  the  House.  The  Commons  had  indeed  an  humble 
original !  But  they  soon  ceased  to  be  silent  deputies,  abashed  iu  the 
]  nee  of  royalty,  and  became  a  powerful  and  influential  political 
1  .  Do  not  credit,  then,  the  strange  assertion  that  iu  Great  Britain 
Nature  has  consented  to  suspend  or  modify  her  decrees,  and  that  there 
alone  Democracy  has  agreed  to  lie  down  in  loving  peace  by  the  side  of 
Aristocracy,  nay,  not  only  to  tolerate  its  existence,  but  to  give  it  the 
fraternal  kiss  and  carry  with  it  a  divided  sceptre.  So  far  is  it  from 
being  true  that  the  Commons  are  antagonistic  in  principle  to  the  Lords, 
that  they  constitute* at  this  hour  the  strongest  outwork  of  the  Peers, 
and  indeed  stand  between  the  noble  class  and  the  aggressive  element  of 
democracy.* 

If  we  come  to  the  Western  Continent,  we  will  discover  that  the  mixed 
government  found  a  place  in  the  political  establishments  which  England 
gave  to  her  North  American  Colonies.  There  were  the  royal  govern- 
ors, the  council  and  the  popular  assemblies,  called  in  our  own  Virginia 
the  House  of  Burgesses.  These  colonial  governments  resembled  very 
closely  the  Gothic  constitution  in  its  original  form,  or  rather  after  the 

*  The  following  passage  from  Lamartiae'a  Hist,  of  the  Girondists  confirms, 

in  very  striking  and  elegant  langunge,  what  is  asserted   in  the  text  : 

"The  House  of  Commons  more  resembled  a  senate' of  nobles  than  a  demo- 
cratic forum  ;  but  this  parliament  was  an  open  and  resounding  chamber,  where 
they  discussed  openly  iu  the  face  of  the  throne,  as  iu  the  face  of  all  Europe, 
the  most  comprehensive  measures  of  the  government.  Royalty,  honored  in 
form,  whilst  in  fact  it  is  excluded  and  powerless,  merely  presides  over  these 
debates,  and  adds  order  to  victory;  it  was  in  reality  nothing  more  than  a  per- 
petual consulate  of  this  Britannic  Senate.  The  voices  of  the  leading  orators, 
who  contested  the  rule  of  the  nation,  echoed  thence,  through  and  out  of  Europe. 
Liberty  finds  its  level  in  the  social  world,  like  the  waves  in  the  common  bed  of 
the  ocean.  One  nation  is  not  free  with  impunity — one  nation  is  not  in  bondage 
with  impuuity — all  finally  compares  and  equalizes  itself." — vol.  i.  p.  184. 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY.  CS 

Third  Estate  bad  been  admitted  to  its  share  in  political  power.  Indeed 
they  were  but  shoots  from  the  English  stock  before  it  had  cast  off  its 
old  character.    . 

How  has  the. mixed  government  of  the  United  States  fared  since  it 
has  passed  into  its  new,  its  military  phase  ?  If  I  mistake  not,  since  the 
executive  or  monarchical  principle  in  that  government  has  come  to  be 
strengthened  with  a  commanding  military  force,  it  has  manifested 
despotic  instincts  which  no  one  can  misunderstand  or  deny.  It  has  not 
yet  dispersed  the  federal  parliament;  it  is  not  necessary,  for  that  body 
troops  very  obediently  at  the  President's  heels;  but  it  has  attacked  the 
freedom  of  the  elective  franchise,  and  with  the  bayonet  crushed  opposi- 
tion where  alone  it  could  originate. 

If  the  executive  power  is  not  made  to  bow  the  neck  to  legislative 
dictation,  by  force  or  guile  it  seeks  ascendancy  and  finally  monopolizes 
the  government.  Tins  is  the  philosophy  of  all  history,  which  is  but  the 
philosophy  of  human  nature.  If  in  our  young  government  it  has  not 
yet  displayed  its  controlling  instincts,  and  found  occasion,  amid  the 
turbulence  of  a  revolution,  for  self-aggrandizement,  we  have  reason  to 
be  grateful  to  the  integrity  of  one  man. 


•14  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IX   THE   ARMY. 


LETTER  X. 


But  if  the  Government  of  1787  beara  but  little  analogy  to  that  of 
Grri'  Britain  since  the  Revoluti  S,  I  am  persuaded  that  if  we 

uncov<  r  the  A.rticb  -    ■:'  ! '   :  dust  and  oblivion  which 

have  set;'  h    a  *i  uiifttade,  in  some   principal  features, 

can  there  b^  d  baf  the  Con 

of  th  leration  was  shaped,  as  far  as  circumstances  would  allow, 

afti  r  the  House  of  Common's.  "We  find  there  a  body  to  which  was  com- 
mitted the  general  powers  of  government,  and  with  authority  t )  establish 
and  regulate  an  executive  organ.  Out  of  that- arrangement,  had  it  been 
permitted  to  siand,  there  would  assuredly  have  grown  up  such  a  minis- 
terial executive  as  we  now  see  so  admirably  at  work  across  the  Atlantic. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Confederation  provided,  that  Congress  should 
have  "authority  to  appoint  such  other  committees  and  civil 
may  be  necessary  for  managing  the  general  affairs  of  the  United  States 
under  their  direction;  to  appoint  one  of  their  number  to  preside  J  pro- 
vided that  no  persou  be  allowed  to  serve  in  the  office  of  President  more 
than  one  year  in  any  term  of  three  years."  Their  premier  or  head  of 
the  executive  administration  was  to  be  called  a  President,  from  whence 
was  borrowed  the  name  of  the  monarchical  officer  who  was  constituted 
the  executive  under  the  Constitution  of  Philadelphia.  You  will  per- 
ceive here  the  germ  of  such  an  executive  as  a  parliamentary  govern- 
ment demands. 

The  "  Committee  of  the  States"  which  Congress  had  permission  to 
establish,  and  which,  upon  experiment,  went  to  pieces,  has  been  con- 
founded with  the  executive  organization  by  a  no  less  authoritative  writer 
than  Mr.  Jefferson.  But  the  design  of  that  committee  appears  to  have 
been  very  different.  It  was  to  sit  during  the  recess  of  Congress,  and 
was  empowered  to  wield  the  legislative  authority  of  C  ,  with  cer- 

tain exceptions.  Tt  was  a  clumsy  contrivance,  and  the  best  apology  for 
it  is,  that  its  establishment  was  permissive,  not  mandatory. 

The  Government  of  the  Confederation,  on  account  of  a  defect  of 
power,  did  not  go  into  successful  operation,  and  the  executive  organiza- 
tion, as  provided  for,  having  had  no  full  and  fair  trial,  of  course  fell 
with  it,  thus  by  the  defect  and  failure  of  the  other  departments  losing 
its  own  hold  upon  popular  favor. 

But  the  great  difficulty,  T  apprehend,  to  be  encouufcred  in  introducing 
a  responsible  executive  into  an  amended  constitution,  will  not  be  found 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY.  45 

in  convincing  the  sober-minded  and  thinking  portion  of  our  people  of 
its  infinite  superiority,  but  in  the  innovation  it  will  make  upon  their  po- 
litical habits,  which,  for  so  long  a  time,  have  been  adjusted  to  a  mo- 
narchical executive.  I  fear  it  will  prove  no  easy  task  to  cut  them  loose 
and  fasten  them  to  another  of  a  parliamentary  or  republican  nature. 
But  a  great  war  raging  in  ever}'  part  of  a  country,  produces  or  may  pro- 
duce a  moral  revolution,  of  which  the  advocates  of  this  change  may  take 
advantage.  The  fetters  of  many  an  obstinate  prejudice  will  be  broken, 
public  opinion  will  be  unchained,  and  once  again  in  America  will  thought 
be  set  free.  I  despair  of  no  wholesome  reform  that  is  patronized  by  the 
the  active  genius  of  the  army. 

But  there  is  another  army,  an  army  of  small,  mercenary  politicians, 
brought  into  existence  by  presidential  elections,  whose  opposition  is 
much  to  be  dreaded.  Will  they  be  reconciled  to  retire  into  their  native 
obscurity  ?  They  may  be  found  as  little  inclined  to  relinquish  the  dear 
privilege  of  choosing  a  President,  a3  ever  were  the  debauched  Praeto- 
rians a  Roman  Emperor.     Can  this  powerful  array  be  broken  ? 

Eminent  men  in  Virginia,  and  elsewhere  in  the  Southern  section,  have 
often  expressed  apprehensions  of  the  effects  of  the  Presidential  elections  in 
drawing  after  them  venality  and  corruption  in  their  most  insinuating 
and  dangerous  forms.  Indeed,  many  have  thought  this  the  most  fatal  of 
all  the  innovations  introduced  iuto  the  Federal  system  in  1787.  Into 
every  part  of  the  body  politic  the  subtle  venom  w  is  instilleek  By  these 
elections  was  first  introduced  the  supreme  rei^n  of  Party,  whose  Procrus- 
tean tests  soon  came  to  be  applied  everywhere  to  every  officer,  from  the 
greatest  to  the  least;  and  what  increased  the  evil,  the  influence  of  this 
periodical  election  of  the  highest  officer  finally  brought  under  the  juris- 
diction of  popular  election  every  public  office  in  the  country.  "When  this 
had  been  effected,  not  a  justice  of  the  peace,  not  a  sheriff,  not  a  constable, 
not  an  overseer  of  the  poor  could  be  selected  by  the  voters  until  after  a 
previous  inquisition  into  his  polities,  or  rather  as  to  what  badge  the  man 
wore,  to  which  one  he  belonged  of  the  two  great  camps  which  divided 
society. 

This  spirit  of  party  in  its  potency,  more  than  all  other  causes,  had 
concentrated  power  at  Washington.  It  had  raised  over  us  not  a  physical 
despotism,  but  such  an  one  as  the  Prince  of  Evil  is  said  to  erect  in  the 
hearts  of  bad  men.  So  deep-rooted  was  this  despotism,  that  nothing  less 
powerful  than  the  convulsive  efforts  of  the  present  revolution  could  have 
destroyed  its  baleful  influence.  But  why  transplant  the  Upas  tree  to 
the  South? 

The  effects  of  this  monster  evil,  however,  did  not  stop  here.  It  be- 
came a  common  observation,  that  party  spirit  had  already  to  a  considera- 
ble extent  wrought  a  change  in  the  character  of  our  people,  as  Mr. 


LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN   THE    ARMY. 

Gil  predicted  it  would.     The  opinions  of  the  leading  men  in 

the  country  had  began  to  lose  their  hold  on  the  people,  and   bad 
supplanted  by  party  meetings,  wielded  by  an  irresponsible  newspaper 

press,     linked,  men  of  the  best  parts  and  character  were  beginning  to 

ire  from  public  life,  and  to  be  replaced  bv  a  lower  caste  more  compli- 
ant in  their  natures.  The  lion  would  soon  have  alt  j  -appeared 
from  our  land,  and  the  jackal  and  i" >x  have  taken  his  pi. 

This  change  had   already  come  ab'>ut  in  I  :  lential    line.      See 

into  what  a  pigmy  race  it  had  run  !  Compare  General  Harrison  to  Mr. 
Madison  with  liis  massive  intollect,  and  Franklin  Pierce  to  the  accom- 
plished Jefferson,  and,  if  the  indignity  be  not  too  great,  compare  Mr. 
Lincoln  with  Washington.  Under  such  auspices  the  government  .had 
got  to  be  an  elective  monarchy,  and  the  President,  as  Jefferson  when  he 
first  read  the  Constitution  had  stigmatized  him,  a  bad  edition  of  a 
Polish  King. 

Our  experience  of  an  elective  executive  has  convinced  us  of  its  entire 
incompatibility  with  stability  in  government.  It  had  been  foresecu  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  would  be  overwhelmed  in  oue  of 
those  periodical  tempests  which  that  Constitution  had  itself  decreed 
fchould  sweep  over  the  country.  No  government  can  be  made  strong 
enough  to  endure  so  violent  a  test.  The  true  principle  would  seem  to  be, 
either  that  the  executive  authority ^  in  ordw  to  offord  the  necessary  per- 
manence,  mutt  be  fixed  and  hereditary;  or  its  depository  should  be  sub- 
ject to  be  changed  with  the  greatest  ease  possible,  and  without  syspend- 
ing  or  destroying  for  a  moment  (he  movement  of  tlie  machinery  of 
government. 

A  little  republic  like  that  of  San  Marino,  perched  on  the  Alps,  where 
there  is  nothing  to  be  struggled  for,  might  endure  the  elective  principle 
even  when  applied,  as  we  have  applied  it,  to  every  part  of  the  government, 
as  though  instability  were  the  object  of  search  ;  but  for  a  great  people  to 
adopt  it,  is  to  legislate  for  revolution  and  make  anarchy  their  normal  condi- 
tion. Republics  have  their  enthusiastic  friemls,  hereditary  constitutional 
monarchy  its  advocates,  and  despotism  its  apologists  and  defenders;  bufc 
no  one  is  ever  found  to  recommend  or  extenuate  elective  monarchy  — 
all  are  opposed  to  that. 

An  elective  executive  in  our  Confederate  Government  will  be  pro- 
ductive of  revolutionary  changes,  which  produce  war;  and  we  do  not 
now  stand  in  need  of  theoretical  instruction  as  to  the  nature  and  extent 
of  that  calamity. 

We  have  to  choose  either  a  permanent  executive,  such  a  one  as  only 
hereditary  right  will  afford,  or  an  executive  which  may  be  changed 
without  unchaining  the  storm  and  convulsing  the  nation — such  an  execu- 
tive, in  short,  as  fits  to  a  parliamentary  government.     A  ship  without 


LETTERS    TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  47 

anchor,  rudder  or  compass  is  not  more  afloat  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  winds 
and  waves  than  an  associated  government  such  as  ours  is,  where  there  is 
nothiog  that  savors  of  stability — no  part  that  is  not  in  a  state  of  con. 
?tant  transition.  I  have  heard  an  hereditary  executive* warmly  defended 
in  the  army  as  necessary  to  prevent  periodical  revolutions,  but  I  confess 
that  my  attachment  to  the  republican  executive  is  unabated,  and  that  I 
would  never  consent  to  resort  to  the  principle  of  hereditary  right,  ex. 
cept  to  escape  from  that  greatest  calamity  of  nations — an  elective 
monarchy. 

The  executive  line  under  the  Constitution  of  the  Tinted  States  has 
as  we  have  seen,  degenerated  into  a  race  of  mountebanks  and  dwarfs. 
But  what  will  be  the  effect  of  the  change  here  proposed  upon  the  intel- 
lectual stature  of  our  public  men  ?  For  we  all  agree  that  any  plan  of 
government  is  vicious  and  doomed  soon  to  perish,  which  does  not  tend  to 
develop  and  to  employ  in  the  public  service  the  highest  character  and 
talent  of  the  nation. 

A  parliamentary  government,  in  holding  out  the  first  offices  of  the 
executive  administration  as  the  reward  of  successful  ambition,. applies 
to  human  exertion  the  most  potent  stimulants.  Those  prizes  would  be 
won  by  the  exhibition,  on  the  conspicuous  theatre  of  the  Confederato 
House  of  Commons,  of  a  superior  capacity  for  public  business — of  saga- 
city, wisdom,  knowledge  of  affairs,  eloquence  and  firmness  of  character, 
not  by  the  successful  employment  of  the  low  pimping  arts  of  popularity. 
No  party  or  interest  in  the  country  could  maintain  itself  in  the  lead  for 
an  hour  that  did  not  put  forward  its  ablest  men,  not  only  in  one,  but 
in  every  avenue  of  the  government.  Thrown  into  the  family  of  nations, 
the  public  emergency  would  demand  able  diplomacy.  In  due  season  a 
corps  of  accomplished  ambassadors  and  negotiators  would  be  formed. 
It  would  become  a  distinct  profession,  and  emulation  there,  as  it  does 
in  all  things  else,  would  after  a  while  produce  the  highest  merit.  J)y 
this  mean's,  our  country,  after  such  a  system  had  reared  its  own  chil- 
dren, would  be  as  celebrated  for  its  statesmen  and  orators  as  any  nation 
in  Christendom. 

Indeed,  all  the  intellectual  energies  of  a  country  ought  to  be  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Administration.  No  people  in  this  enlightened 
age  can  hope  to  attain  prosperity  and  greatness,  nor  ultimately  even 
preserve  national  life,  who  do  not  patronize  genius.  The  monarchs  of 
Continental  Europe  have  all  learned  tbis.  Every  great  European 
power,  including  even  Russia,  backed  by  its  immense  military  resources, 
employs  a  body  of  expert  and  able  diplomatists,  into  which  are  admitted, 
as  occasion  demands,  the  gifted  minds  of  the  army,  who  in  this  way  are 
engaged  in  embassies  and  negotiations,  as  well  as  battles,  sieges  and 
military   reviews.     Those   sapient   States   would   as   soon    bury   their 


43  LETTERS    TO    Z.N    OFFICER    EH    THE    ARMY. 

shining  ingots  in  the  t  indemn  a  great  mind   to  rest  in   the 

f  the  barrack  room.     In  America  only  is 'such  folly 

committed.     There  only  do  we  Bad  a  nation  thai  has  been  penurious  of 
its  genius,  and  prodigal  of  it-  mediocrity.     But  the  Con!' 
wi:I  be  compelled  through  the  trammels  of  this  American 

1.  national  existence  is  fairly  begun,  to  condemn 

.  < moral  Lei  leral 

meral  Early  to   the  dull   and  unprofitable  routine  of 
army  life,  wasting  like  great   light  mg  in  solitude,  or  like  e 

springs,  whose  crystal  waters  are  swallowed  up  in  the  sands.  Such 
liberal  employments,  thrown  open  to  the  ambition  and  talents  of  the 
army,  would  widen  its  sphere  of  action  and  elevate  its  intellectual  eha- 
i        r,  whilst  they  would  mitigate,  if  they  could  y,  that  eg 

tical,  monkish  spirit,  so  apt  to  grow  up  and  fasten  on  such  establish- 
ments. 

The  United  States,  in  m  of  immense  physical  resources,  and 

d  by  a  position  of  geographical  isolation,  could  with  safety  indulge 
a  plebeian  preference  fur  mediocrity.  But  in  this  respect  we  shall  be 
compelled  to  resort  to  an  opposite  policy.  The  United  States  led  with 
success  the  existence  of  "a  sceptred  hermit,"  but  the  Confederate  States 
will  have  to  plunge  in  affairs  and  maintain  herself  as  much  by  intelli- 
gence as  by  force  of  arms.  Our  country  will  be  girdled  by  powerful, 
and,  some  of  them,  hostile  neighbors.  It  was  but  the  other  day  that 
a  monarchy  was  planted  on  our  Southern  border,  where  we  have  hereto- 
fore looked  only  for  weakness,  a  monarchy  strengthened  by  European 
affinities  and  connexions,  and  Europeau  allies  if  necessary.  As  soon  as 
that  modern  throne  has  had  time  to  root  itself  and  mould  into  harmony 
the  jarring  elements  arouud  it,  Mexico  will  begin  to  obey  the  instincts 
of  all  nations  and  extend  its  frontiers.  With  either  hand  resting  on  one 
of  the  great  oceans,  and  energized  by  a  military  monarchy,  that,  country 
must  soon  become  a  formidable  power.  When  to  these  we  add  the 
nation^  of  South  Ameriea,  if  confined  alone  to  the  management  of 
American  affairs,  American  statesmanship  will  be  no  holiday  employ- 
ment. 

But,  sir,  if  so  inclined,  the  Confederacy  will  not  be  able  to  stand 
aloof  from  European  complications.  They  will  press  upon  ber  and 
Interweave  with  her  affairs.  So  closely  have  America  and  Europe  been 
drawn  together  by  commercial  ties,  that  the  former  must  finally  bo 
embraced  by  the  European  Balance. of  Bower;  lor  already,  we  know, 
the  United  States  has  been  invited  to  send  deputies  on  a  recent  occasion 
to  a  Congress  of  European  powers. 

If  to  escape  being  drawn  into  the  maelstrom  of  European  politics — 
since  we  have  been  taught  so  to  regard  it — we  form  with  the  other 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY.  49 

nations  of  this  Western  Hemisphere  an  American  Balance  of- Power, 
may  not  the  two  systems  be  brought  into  conflict?  Whatever  be  our 
future  in  this  regard,  if  our  popular  form  is  not  so  devised  as  sponta- 
neously to  bring  into  the  public  service  the  best  intellect  of  the  nation, 
it  must  sink  and  give  place  to  a  government  that  will  or  can  comply 
with  the  conditions  of  national  life.  To  this  inexorable  law  all  nations 
in  all  times  must  bow. 

What,  in  this  respect,  have  been  the  effects  produced  on  the  public 
councils  of  Great  Britain  by  the  introduction  of  the  principle  of  parlia- 
mentary government?  The  first  fruits  of  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
which  is  the  era  of  the  commencement  of  parliamentary  government, 
were  internal  concord  and  consideration  abroad.  From  that  time  must 
be  dated  the  period  when  the  imperial  greatuess  of  that  country  began. 
England  then  escaped  from  the  ignominy  of  a- -French  vassalage,  and 
rose  soon  to  become  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  Breaking  through  its 
ancient  bounds,  her  dominion  began  to  spread  into  every  quarter  of  the 
globe,  and  now,  though  widely  separated,  the  members  of  the  empire 
are  yet  firmly  knit  together  in  a  solid  fabric  of  power,  which  the 
greatest  war?,  waged  by  the  most  powerful  nations,  have  not  been  able 
to  shake.  There  was  nothing  to  compare  with  it  in  the  ancient  world, 
and  there  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  modern  world;  nor  has  that  greatness 
yet  attained  its  period  of  culmination.  To  become  acquainted  with  the 
immense'  influence  of  the  British  Government,  it  is  necessary  to  be 
brought  iuto  contact  with  it  on  the  theatre  of  Europe  itself.*  It  far 
surpasses  that  of  any  State  on  the  continent. 

It  was  British  genius  which  planned,  and  British  power  and  valor, 
aided  by  her  subsidized  allies,  effected  the  destruction  of  the  terrible 
throne  of  Napoleon  ;  and  now  it  is  her  physical  and  mora!  weight  whicn 
sustains  and  preserves  the  balance  of  Europe. 

By  undervaluing  or  denying,  we  cannot  diminish  the  power  of  a 
great  nation.  In  a  wiser  and  more  liberal  spirit  let  us  examine  the 
cause,  and  profit,  if  we  are  able,  by  the  example.  The  philosophy  of 
that  history  is  indeed  instructive.  It  teaches  mankind  that  those  sum- 
mits of  grandeur  have  been  attained  iudced  by  the  practice  of  many 
'  virtues,  but  mainly  by  the  exquisite  adaptation  to  national  character  of 
political  institutions,  and  of  those  institutions  to  the  greatest  national 
emergencies.  After  a  long  period  of  internal  strife,  which  inflicted  on 
the  nation  the  greatest  calamities,  the  British  Constitution  emerged,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  outward  form  the  same,  but  its  interior  structure  so 
modified  as  alwayS  to  throw  into  the  public  employment  men  of  the 

*  I  heard  the  late  Mr.  Yancey,  that  lamented  and  extraordinary  genius,  ex- 
press that  opinion  after  his  return  from  England. 

4 


50  »  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY. 

-t  character  and  greatest  parts.  This  is  the  life-spring  of  that 
great  body,  the  pulse  whose  vigorous  beat  is  felt  in  every  part  of  the 
world. 

Tl:  '  authority  in  English  politics  thus  expresses  himself,  in 

regard  'need  upon  the  importance  of  that  kingdom  by 

the  political  revolution  which  dismissed  the  Stuarts  from  the  family  of 
princes  :  "  Instead  of  lying  as  dead,  in  a  sort  of  trance,  or  exposed  as 
some  others,  in  an  epileptic  fit,  to  the  pity  or  derision  of  the  world,  for 

did,  ridiculous,  convulsive  movements,  impotent  to  every  purpose 
but  that  of  dashing  out  her  brains  against  the  pavement,  Great  Britain 
rose  above  the  standard  even  of  her  former  self.  An  era  of  more 
improved  domestic  prosperity  then  commenced,  and  still  continues,  not 
only  unimpaired,  but  growing,  under  the  wasting  hand  of  time.  All 
the  energies  of  the  country  were  awakened.  England  never  preserved 
a  firmer  countenance,  or  a  more  vigorous  arm,  to  all  her  eDcmics  and  to 
all  her  rivals.  Europe  under  her  respired  and  revived.  Everywhere 
she  appeared  as  the  protector,  the  asscrter,  or  the  avenger  of  liberty. 
A  war  was  made  and  supported  against  fortune  itself.  The  treaty  of 
llys.wick,  which  first  limited  the  power  of  France,  was  soon  after  made : 
the  grand  alliance  very  shortly  followed,  which  shook  to  the  foundations 
the  dreadful  power  which  menaced  the  independence  of  mankind.  The 
States  of  Europe  lay  happy  under  the  shade  of  a  great  and  free 
monarchy,  which  knew  how  to  be  great  without  endangering  its  own 
peace  at  home,  or  the  external  or  internal  peace  of  any  of  its  neigh- 
bors." 

If  an  Englishman  feels  conscious  of  abilities  which  entitle  him  to 
take  a  leading  part  in  the  government  of  his  couutry,  he  obtains  a  scat 
in  Parliament,  and  if  he  has  within  him  enough  of  the  orator,  which  all 
great  men  have,  to  impress  himself  on  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
supreme  direction  of  affairs  is  within  his  grasp,  and  even  a  Peerage,  if 
he  will  condescend  to  accept  one.  The  consequence  has  been,  that  in 
high  intellectual  and  moral  traits,  the  long  line  of  cabinet  ministers  since 
the  Revolution  will  compare  favorably  with  the  great  men  of  any  age 
or  country.  To  attain  these  high  positions  and  thus  direct  that  Govern- 
ment, which  controls  a  dominion  on  which  the  sun  never  sets,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  secure  within  easy  reach  riches  and  eminent  social  dis- 
tinction, may  well  excite  the  ambition  of  men  of  the  most  brilliant 
and  solid  understanding.  These  great  rewards  are  no  longer  to  be  ob- 
tained by  intrigue  or  courtly  arts,  nor  by  the  sycophancy  of*  demagogues, 
but  arc  won  by  means  analagous  to  such  as  enabled  a  Chandos  or 
a  Du  Guesclin  to  carry  off  the  guerdon  of  knighthood. 

Pun  your  eye  along  the  period  which  separates  the  accession  of  the 
House  of  Orange  to  the  throne  of  England  from  the  commencement  of 


LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   TEE   ARMY.  51 

modern  history,  and  survey  the  varying  characters  of  the  crown  minis- 
ters !  Under  some  reigns  you  find  able  and  upright  ministers,  but 
under  others  the  most  contemptible  of  mankind.  All  depended  upon 
the  personal  character  of  the  sovereign.*  But  even  where  great  men 
Were  called  to  fill  those  high  positions,  they  were  compelled  to  use  con- 
tinually the  compliances  and  the  arts  of  the  courtier,  so  derogatory  to 
the  natural  elevation  of  a  great  character.  The  masculine  understand- 
ing of  Elizabeth,  and  her  true  sovereign  nature,  but  as  much  the  immi- 
nent perils  which  surrounded  her  throne  and  her  life,  induced  her  to 
call  around  her  men  of  the  weightiest  talents — Burleigh,  Walsingham? 

*  The  accident  of  a  popular  election,  as  was  exhibited  under  our  old  govern- 
ment, is  as  little  likely  to  giVe  a  good  man  as  the  accident  of  birth. 

One  of  the  grievances  of  which  the  French  nation  complained  when  the 
States* General  met  in  1780,  was  the  fluctuations  in  the  government  from  reign 
to  reign  on  account  of  the  different  characters  of  the  sovereigns  who  had  filled 
the  throne.  They  aspired  to  that  fixed,  unvarying  policy  in  the  administration, 
which  can  result  only  from  a  ministry  responsible  to  a  steady,  enlightened  body 
of  legislators.  I  extract  from  a  speech  of  Lally-Tollendal  in  the  chamber  of 
nobility:  "Lastly,  you  have  no  general,  positive,  written  law,  no  diploma  at 
once  royal  and  national,  no  great  charter,  upon  which  rests  a  fixed  and  invaria- 
ble order,  from  which  each  learns  how  much  of  his  liberty  and  property  he 
ought  to  sacrifice  in  order  to  preserve  the  rest,  which  insures  all  rights,  which 
defines  all  powers.  On  the  contrary,  the  system  of  your  government  has  varied 
from  reign  to  reign,  frequently  from  ministry  to  ministry;  it  has  depended  on  the 
age  and  character  of  one  man.  In  minorities,  under  a  weak  prince,  the  royal 
authority,  which  is  of  importance  to  the  prosperity  and  dignity  of  the  nation, 
has  been  indecently  degraded,  either  by  the  great,  who  with  one  hand  shook  the 
throne,  and  with  the  other  crushed  the  people,  or  by  bodies  which  at  one  time 
seized  with  tenacity  what  at  another  they  had  defended  with  courage.  Under 
haughty  princes  who  were  flattered,  under  virtuous  princes  who  were  deluded, 
this  same  authority  has  been  carried  beyond  all  bounds.  Your  secondary,  your 
intermediate  powers,  as  you  call  them,  have  not  been  either  better  defined  or 
more  fixed.  Sometimes  the  Parliaments  have  laid  it  dowu  as  a  principle  that 
they  could  not  interfere  in  affairs  of  State;  at  others  they  have  insisted. that  it 
was  their  prerogative  to  discuss  them  as  representatives  of  the  nation.  On  the 
one  hand  were  seen  proclamations  making  known  the  will  of  the  King,  on  the 
other  decrees,  in  which  the  King's  officers  forbade,  in  the  King's  name,  the 
execution  of  the  King's  orders.  Among  the  courts  the  like  discord  prevails; 
they  quarrel  about  their  origin,  their  functions;  they  mutually  launch  anathe- 
mas at  each  other  by  their  decrees. 

'•  You  have  no  law  which  establishes  the  responsibility  of  all  the  ministers  of 
executive  power,  for  you  are  demanding  one;  and  the  creators  of  those 
sanguinary  commissions,  the  issuers  of  those  arbitrary  orders,  the  dilapidators 
of  the  public  exchequer,  the  violators  of  the  sanctuary  of  public  justice,  those 
who  have  flattered  the  passions  of  another,  those  who  have  brought  disasters  on 
the  nation,  have  been  cnlled  to  no  account — have  undergone  no  punishment." — 
Tiiieus'  History  of  the  French  Revolution,  vol.  i.,  p.  52. 


52  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICES   IN    THE    ARMY. 

the  I  y  could  not  prevent  her  from  indulging 

her  taste  or  her  passion  for  a  favorite  like    I  the 

•  the  supervisory  jurisdiction  of  the  legislature 

by  worthless  minions  like  Buckingham 

and  8 

The  British  Empire  was  created  and  is  now  preserved  by  the  adiuira- 

m  which  places  always  great  intellect  at  tl  of  affairs, 

ami   that  nation  will   not  be  likely  soon  to  exchange  this   system  for 

another.     Ten  or    twenty  years    of   a    Buckingham,  perhaps  a    .-ingle 

administration,  would  shake  the  lofty  pyramid  to  the  ground. 


LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER   IN   THE    ARMY.  53 


LETTER  XL 

In  the  organization  of  a  parliamentary  government  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  derive  the  legislative  body,  which  is  to  control  executive  action, 
directly  from  the  people,  as  in  the  case  of  the  British  House  of  Commons. 
The  heads  of  department,  or  executive  cabinet,  would  be  composed  of  the 
leaders  of  the  respective  parties,  who  would  always  be  in  their  seats  to 
give  such  explanations  and  defence  of  administrative  policy  as  the  emer- 
gency might  call  for.  This  would  impart  unity,  energy  and  harmony 
to  the  measures  of  the  government.  As  stability  is  the  foundation  of 
all  good  things,  without  which  even  liberty  ceases  to  be  a  blessing,  it 
would  be  necessary,  in  order  the  more  perfectly  to  attain  it,  to  add  to 
the  machinery  of  government,  or  rather  to  retain,  the  balance-wheel  of 
a  Senate.  The  British  Government  is  provided  with  one,  for  the  House 
of  Peers  is  nothing  more  than  an  hereditary  Senate,  composed,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  the  same  general  elements  as  the  House  of  Commons; 
and  we  know  that  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  more  perfectly  than 
,  any  other  part  of  that  government,  answered  the  end  of  its  institution. 
It  was,  indeed,  the  stronghold  in  which  conservatism,  justice  and  weight 
of  talent  and  character  for  a  long  time  took  refuge.  But  the  senatorial 
term  was  too  short,  and  consequently  the  Senate  after  a  while  yielded 
to  frhe  sectional  influence  that  overthrew  the  Government. 

I  have  been  much  struck  with  the  opinion  of  the, elder  Adams,  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  reports,  that  "  no  republic  could  ever  last  which  Lad  not 
a  Senate  deeply  and  strongly  rooted;  strong  enough  to  bear  up  against 
all  popular  storms  and  passions.  That  as  to  trusting  to  a  popular 
mbly  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberties,  it  was  the  merest  chimera 
•possible." 

To  make  the  Senate  stable  and  give  it  a  deep  root,  its  term  of  office 
ought  to  be  something  approaching  the  ordinary  term  of  human  life  ; 
and  to  enable  it  to  maintain  itself,  Senators  ought  to  be  eligible  to  the 
high  executive  offices,  as  they  are  in  Great  Britain.  Iu  this  way  another 
and  very  high  class  of  ability  would  be  laid  open  for  employment  by 
the  administrative  department. 

The  House  of  Commons  is  a  very  numerous  body,  enough  so  to  be  a 
miniature  resemblance  of  the  nation.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why 
it  carries  with  its  deliberations  so  great  an  influence.  Our  House  of 
Commons,  like  its  archetype,  ought  to  be  composed  of  many  members. 
The  ordinary  current  of  business  would  then  be  rapidly  dispatched  by  a 


54  ,      LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN   TIIE   ARMY. 

few  active  ndnds.  But  when  questions  of  moment  were  up  the  whole 
body  of  the  House  would  be  consulted.  A  multitudinous  representa- 
tive body  in  realil  faster  in  business  than  small  ones,  which 
are  fatigued  by  th<  ions  of  impertinence  and  mediocrity,  while 
the  larger  body  soon  devises  means  to  protect  itself  from  such  inflictions. 

The  weight  and  r-  spectability  of  the  Senate  will  be  proportionally 
•iced  by  that  of  tliv'  State  Legislatures  from  which  it  will  be  derived. 
If  their  old  functions  are  restored  ami  they  he  made  again  influential 
bodies  such  as  the  Virginia  Legislature  was  when  it  was  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  State,  it  will  be  a  great  step  towards  that  representative 
system  which,  in  the  opinion  of  a  large  number,  is  the  only  means  that 
will  enable  us  to  retain  a  popular  government  for  any  length  of 
time. 

We  have  had  in  Virginia  two  distinct  plans  of  State  Government 
since  her  separation  from  the  British  Crown,  patronized  respectively  by 
the  eminent  names  of  George  Mason  and  Thomas  Jefferson.  We  have 
tried  both  and  are  qualified  to  pronounce  between  them.  The  first,  Mr. 
Mason's,  was  eminently  based  on  the  representative  principle.  Accord- 
ing to  that  plan  the  people  were  called  upon  to  set  in  motion  the  ma- 
chinery of  government  by  electing  a  legislature,  and  upon  that  body 
were  devolved  the  responsible  duties  of  legislation  and  the  appointment 
of  all  the  officers,  judicial  and  executive.  The  people  then,  after  the 
fir>t  initiatory  act,  stood  aloof  in  a  state  of  political  repose,  to  eujoy  the 
fruits  of  a  good  system,  but  ready  to  redress  any  grievances  and  correct 
any  irregularities  which  might  occur  in  the  administration  of  affairs. 
There  could  not  be  oppression,  for  they  held  in  their  hands  the  sove- 
reign corrective  of  the  ballot-box.  Under  that  system  everything  went 
on  smoothly.  Good  order,  high  morality,  veneration  for  authority,  and 
as  great  a  proportion  of  public  prosperity  as  the  Federal  Government 
would  allow,  united  with  a  deep  and  energetic  love  of  liberty, -character- 
ized the  Commonwealth.  There  was  not  a  better  governed  country  in 
the  world  than  Virginia  during  the  entire  period  to  which  I  allude. 

But  men  grew  tired  of  their  own  happiness  and  disgusted  with  the 
public  felicity,  and  Mr.  Mason's  representative  government  was  laid 
aside  ancLMr.  Jefferson's  democratic  model  tried  instead.  The  Legis- 
lature, once  so  powerful  and  respectable,  was  despoiled  of  some  of  its 
most  important  functions.  That  body  had  once  chosen  a  governor  and 
the  judges,  and  provided  for  the  appointment  of  the  retinue  of  officers 
employed  in  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  collection  of  the  revenue, 
but  now  the  people  were  called  upon  to  fill  all  these  offices  by  popular  elec- 
tion; not  because  the  former  mode  of  effecting  that  object  did  not 
answer  well,  but  for  another  and  what  was  esteemed  a  far  better  rea- 
son ;  it  did  not  quadrate  so  well  with  the  democratic  theory,  which  required 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  55 

that  the  people  should  be  invoked  to  discharge  every  function  in  the 
government  which  it  was  not  physically  impossible  for  them  to  dis- 
charge. Thus  it  was  that  the  substance  was  sacrificed  to  the  shadow, 
and  a  good  political  system  to  the  speculations  of  a  philosopher.  There 
occurred  then  a  radical  change  in  the  institutions  of  Virginia.  Laying 
aside  their  old  judicial  character,  the  people  were  employed  to  a  great 
extent  to  displace  the  representative  principle.  The  priest  was  thrust 
aside  and  the  multitude  called  in  to  minister  before  the  altar.  From 
that  time  was  annihilated  in  the  public  mind  that  reverential  opinion 
for  the  Constitution  which  at  last. is  the  only  stronghold  of  a  republic. 
Hence  Lycurgus  feigned  his  laws  to  have  been  delivered  to  him  by  a 
god,  and  wc  may  almost  consider  a  subject  for  regret  the  passing  away 
of  a  superstition  which  taught  the  body  of  society  to  venerate  their  su- 
preme law. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  seen  the  model  of  his  plan  in  Massachusetts.  He 
was  charmed  with  it.  After  he  had  retired  from  the  fretful  scenes  of 
politics,  he  employed  a  portion  of  his  leisure  and  tranquillity  in  elabo- 
rating into  a  system  the  plan  of  a  State  government  which  we  now 
have.  According  to  the  most  respectable  testimony,  that  plan  of  dividing 
a  State  into  a  number  of  petty  republics,  or  parishes,  docs  not 
answer  well.  The  people  are  disgusted  with  the  multiplicity  of  elec- 
tions. They  attend  to  their  own  business.  They  leave  it  to  others  to 
attend  to  the  elections.  In  the  meantime  the  productive  laborers  of 
the  community  are  diminished  by  the  number  of  official  aspirants,  the 
laws  are  badly  executed,  and  so  perish  the  fond  hopes  of  the  Massachu- 
setts experiment  in  Virginia. 

Let  that  New  England  importation  be  abandoned.  It  suits  not  the 
genius  of  Virginia.  Let  us,  in  the  ripeness  of  our  own  experience,  return 
to  the  old,  the  tested  wisdom  of  George  Mason,  and  in  doing  so  illus- 
trate our  fitness  for  the  grave  responsibility  of  self-government. 

To  the  ancients  we  owe,  perhaps  to  Cicero,*  the  classification  of  govern- 
ments in  three  primary  varieties,  the  democratic,  the  aristocratic  and 
the  monarchical,  to  which  they  added  a  fourth,  compounded  of  the 
others,  which  the}7  denominated  the  mixed  or  compound  government. 
To  this  enumeration  may,  I  think,  with  propriety  be  added  another,  as 
distinct,  when  its  principle  is  considered,  from  all  the  rest,  as  they  from 
each  other — I  mean  the  representative  government,  the  gift  of  the 
Feudal  system  to  the  modern  world.  The  representative  government 
has  been  generally  confounded  with  simple  democracy  and  put  in  the 
classification  with  it,  by  theoretical  writers;  and  has  been  confounded 
too  with  those  local  agencies  which,  under  the  false  name  of  representa- 
tion, democracy  often  establishes,  in  the  executive  and  legislative  offices, 

*  See  his  Republic. 


5G  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN    THE   ARMY. 

at  the  seat  of  government.  But  no  greater  error  could  surely  have 
been  commitb 

A  term  i  long  enough  to  irjsure  representative  independence, 

U  the  characteristic  of  this  government — the  enlightened  aud  inetru 
one,  thinking  and  i  the  uninstructed  and  unenlightened  many, 

•nc    must   be  BO   firmly  -  -  .to   be   able  to  withstand   clamors 

from  without,  originating  in  misconception  and  those  gust* of  passion 
to  which  all  large  bodies  of  men  are  exposed.  The  repres<  ntative  must 
ind<  ed  be  responsible  to  the  constituent  body,  but  responsible  after  bis 
political  action  has  had  time  to  display  itself  in  results;  for  hero,  as  in 
divine  things,  ought  the  tree  to  be  known  by  it-  fruit.  Representation, 
in  its  true  character,  is  a  noble  trust  and  confidence,  and  engenders  one 
of  the  most  exalted  relations  that  can  exist  among  men.  Let  it  not  be 
degraded  into  the  mercenary  bond  of  client  and  attorney,  or  principal 
and  agent,  or  that  other  ignoble  connexion  of  master  and  servant.  It 
has  no  analogies.     It  stands  apart,  a  moral  tic,  like  unto  itself. 

-  ni;itive  government,  then,  when  we  search  into  and  divine 
its  characteristic  principle,  is  as  distiuct  from  democracy,  in  any  of  its 
phases  and  compounds,  as  intellect  and  moral  stability  are  from  igno- 
rance, brutality  and  inconstancy.* 

The  evil  to  be  truarded  against  in  popular  systems,  (we  have  learned 
this  from  experience,)  is  not  irresponsibility,  but  evils  of  a  contrary 
nature — servility,  the  hunting  after  popularity,  to  which  the  highest 
functions  of  office  are  sometimes  prostituted.  It  is  the  nature  of  man 
to  flatter  wherever  there  is  power,  and  flattery,  as  has  been  wisely  said, 
corrupts  both  the  giver  and  receiver;  nor  is  adulation  better  for  the 
people  than  for  kings. 

The  constitutional  disease  of  elective  systems,  is  a  servile  subui 

*  The  true  attitude  for  the  people  to  assume  is  that  of  judges,  and  not  par- 
ties, to  political  action.     Here  is  the  broad  an. I  visible  line  between  Represen- 
trnment,  according  to  the  theory  of  »■  m,  and  your  Jefferso- 

nian  I)  -v.     The  following  memorandum  of  a  conversation  between  Sir 

James  Mackintosh  and  Edmund  Burke*  which  Cor  the  first  time  I  have  just  met 
with,  gives  expression  to  the  immutable  principle  to  which  allusion  is  made  in 
the  text :    "  C".  II  governments,  beeautt 

it  is  ,  ,<t  once  to  act  and  to  control,  and,  consequently,  the  sovereign  power, 

in  such  a  >■  •  >u  any  check  wh<it<  vi 

of  government  as  the  best  which  placed  the  ,  \y  in  the  hands  of  the 

natural  aristocracy  of  a  country,  subjecting  litem,  in  its  exercise,  to  the  control  of  the 
people." 

We  can  be  at  no  loss  to  understand  that  Mr.  Burke  means  here,  the  intellect 
and  virtue  as  the  natural  aristocracy  of  a  countrj',  by  whom,  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  people,  the  government  ought  to  bo  couductcd.  Who  is  there  so 
lost  to  reason,  as  to  controvert  this  sapient  conclusion  ? 


LETTERS   TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY.  57 

to  what  is  thought  to  be  the  opinion  at  home.  To  that,  the  most  neces- 
sary measures  of  state  policy  are  sacrificed,  and  concessions  made,  worse 
than  any  sacrifice. 

The  House  of  Commons,  the  illustrious  model  that  invites  our  imi- 
tation, has  a  representative  period  of  seven  years.  It  has,  from  the 
beginning,  been  so,  and  complaint  has  never  been  made,  that  by  it  the 
representative  is  removed  to  too  great  a  distance  from  the  constituent.' 
On  the  contrary,  English  writers  have  expressed  the  opinion,  that,  by 
the  multiplication  of  newspapers  which  now  spread  daily  before  the 
public  the  debates  and  proceedings  of  Parliament,  and  their  rapid 
dispersion  through  the  country  by  an  elaborate  system  of  railways, 
thus  inviting  the  constant  and  particular  supervision  of  the  voters,  the 
robust  spirit  of  representative  independence  has  to  some  extent  been  lost. 
To  that  cause  ought  to  be  added  another,  more  powerful  here  than  there, 
the  authority  of  public  opinion,  which,  if  it  stood  as  the  sule  guarantee, 
acting  through  a  free  press,  would  be  enough  to  compel  members  to 
consult  the  public  good. 

We  have  in  the  mixed  character  of  our  population  and  the  federal 
divisions  of  our  country,  materials  out  of  which,  by  the  aid  of  our  long 
and  dear-bought  experience,  we  may  be  able  to  construct  a  permanent 
Confederated  Republic — combining  in  large  proportions  the  prominent 
virtues  of  the  British  system,  so  rarely  found  together — stability  and 
liberty.  But,  whatever  others  may  conclude,  I  am  myself  unalterably 
convinced,  that  if  we  would  succeed  in  this  final  attempt  to  establish  upon 
a  permanent  basis  free  institutions,  and  be  saved  from  a  despotism,  our 
political  system,  in  all  its  parts,  must  be  purged  of  democracy;  not 
Only  in  the  Confederate  Government,  which  is  but  the  consequence,  or 
the  rivulet,  so  to  speak,  but  in  the  State  systems,  the  causes  and  foun- 
tains. You  cannot,  sir,  have  anarchy  and  weakness  in  the  parts,  yet 
vigor  and  order  in  the  whole.  The  spirit  of  unity  must  pervade  and 
animate  the  entire  system,  composed  of  the  State  and  Confederate 
Governments.  Homogeneity,  whatever  philosophers  say  to  the  con- 
trary, would  appear  to  be  the  grand  primordial  law  of  the  political 
world.  The  spirit  of  State  institutions  will  breathe  into'  the  lifeless 
form  of  your  Confederate  Constitution.  "The  States  are  the  pillars  of 
the  Confederacy,  nay,  they  are  the  ground  and  basis  of  the  whole  fabric. 
The  lofty  tree,  (if  I  may  borrow- a  metaphor  from  Bolingbroke,)  which 
shoots  its  branches  into  the  sky,  partakes  still  of  the  soil  from  which  it 
springs,  into  which  it  roots,  and  by  which  it  is  sustained. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  proclaimed  the  necessity  of 
such  assimilation.  But,  a  real  assimilation  there,  not  a  simulated  and 
feigued  resemblance,  was  plainly  impos.-ible,  and  the  States  were  permit- 
ted to  pull  down,  their  republics  and  establish  democracy.     "Who  can 


58  LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   THE    ARMY. 

marvel,   that   tlic   Federal   structure,   after  its   very   foundations   were 
loosened,  should  have  tumbled  to  the  ground  f 

Some  wise  roan  has  said,  that  national  character  at  first  determines 
the  political  institutions  of  a  country,  but  that  afterwards  the  political 
institutions  shape  the  national  character.  If  our  people  are  in  Iced 
republican  in  character,  and  not  a  democn  will  be  no  serious 

difficulty,  if  the  right  men  take  hold  of  it,  of  laying  the  foandatioi 
our  entire  system  in  the  representative  republican  principle.     The  r 
tion  of  the  government  will  elevate  the  national  character,  which,  with 
the  mixture  of  the  military  virtue,  will  form  a  great  and  homogeneous 
people. 

Mr.  Webster,  in  one  of  his  public  speeches,  attributed  the  mobocratic 
tendency  of  politics  in  the  cities,  and  indeed  the  entire  North,  to  the 
silent  withdrawal,  and  standing  aloof  from  the  political  arena  of  the 
wealthy  and  educated  classes.  Hence  were  lost  to  the  conservative 
forces  of  the  country  a  great  mass  of  intellect,  property  and  respecta- 
bility, the  influence  of  which  no  popular  government  can  safely  dis- 
pense with.  These  advantages  are  not  the  fickle  gift  of  fortune,  but 
arc  bestowed  by  an  all-wise  Creator  as  a  great  trust,  to  be  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  community  or  country,  not  to  be  wasted  in  indolent 
repose  and  self-gratification.  When  called  into  active  use,  they  are  the 
influences  which  govern  society,  and  by  the  happy  genius  of  our  slave 
institutions,  are  dispersed  through  the  villages  and  country,  as  well  as 
found  in  the  great  towns  and  cities. 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE   ARMY.  59 


LETTER   XII. 


We  hear  the  opinion  expressed,  more  frequently  in  the  army,  that 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  which  has  overwhelmed  the  country  with 
troubles,  has  sealed  the  fate  of  free  government  and  proved  incontcstably 
the  instability  and  impracticability  of  republics.  For  some  appear  to 
think  that  instability  and  internal  war  are  the  wretched  condition  of 
republics  alone,  and  that  to  secure  permanency,  and,  as  it  were,  to 
chain  it  to  the  throne  of  government,  it  is  only  necessary  to  sacrifice 
liberty.  Whereas,  it  is  the  testimony  of  all  history,  that  instability  is 
the  political  law  of  man,  and  that  it  nowhere  attaches  with  more  cer- 
tainty than  to  kingly  government,  more  especially  where,  with  its 
oppressions  and  abuses,  it  is  erected  over  an  uncongenial  population,  such 
as  ours  would  be.  If  we  look  at  the  vicissitudes  of  monarchical  govern- 
ment in  Europe,  particularly  in  France,  since  our  own  ephemeral  experi- 
ment was  begun,  we  will  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  if  republics 
are  unstable  permanency  dwells  not  in  monarchy. 

The  origin  of  violent  and  repeated  changes  in  government,  other 
causes  concurring,  is  found  in  the  nature  of  man.  The  philosopher 
Hobbes  was  much  in  the  right  when  he  said  "war  is  the  natural  state  of 
man."    '"What  are  those  fierce  struggles  of  interest  which  kindle  the  ani- 

DO 

mosities  and  absorb  the  souls  of  individuals  but  the  spirit  of  war  ?  It 
is  the  same  bellicose  propensity  which  rouses  class  against  class  and 
nation  against  nation. 

Some  contemplate  with  delight  the  solidity,  the  grandeur,  the  vast 
extent  of  the  old  temple  of  English  freedom,  and  talk  of  getting  a  king 
as  much  at  their  ease  as  though  the  king  were  not  the  least  part  of  the 
English  system.  We  have  here  cast  a  hasty  glance  at  the  history  of  the 
British  government  and  noted  the  gradual  and  painful  process  by  which  ' 
it  was  formed  :  how  class  interest  is  blended  with  monarchy,  and  how 
powerfully  the  circumstances  and  physical  condition  of  the  country 
affected  the  constitution.  But  there  was  also  a  great  moral  law  ever  at 
work — the  constancy  of  the  English  nation  to  their  own  government. 
They  preferred  it  to  all  others,  and  instead  of,  in  an  ill-humor,  throwing 
it  away  for  some  specious  and  attractive  novelty,  they  adhered  to  it 
with  a  noble  tenacity,  and  from  time  to  time  with  cautious  diligence 
repaired  its  defects.  That  constitution  was  uni nutated  and  is  inimita- 
ble; but  if  we  cannot  borrow  the  pattern  of  it,  we  can  at  least  exhibit 


60  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

towards  our  own  government  the  same  indulgence  to  its  imperfections 
and  perseverance  in  removing  them.  But  if,  di  Bpairing  of  successful 
imitation,  or  successful  originality,  the  people  long  to  partake  of  the 
continued  and  manifold  blessings  of  the  British  Bjsti  m,  they  will  have 
to  revert  to  the  institutions  of  their  ancestors  and  gain  admission  into 
the  British  union. 

But,  sir,  I  see  nothing  in  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  between  the 
North  and  South  to  warrant  so  broad  a  conclusion.  Its  destruction, 
without  doubt,  incontostubly  proves  that  a  Federal  Republic,  embracing 
two  alienated  and  hostile  sections,  is  an  impracticable  government  ;  and, 
when  the  history  of  the  quarrel  whhh  ended  in  secession  is  considi 
it  proves,  tso,  if  you  choose,  the  total  unfitness  of  the  North  for  self- 
government  ;  but  I  am  at  a  loss  to  perceive  how  the  intelligent  and 
manly  course  of  the  Southern  people,  who  preferred  freedom  with  the 
penalty  of  war,  to  submission  with  dishonorable  peace,  can  be  supposed 
to  authorize  a  like  censure.  On  the  contrary,  this  tremendous  crisis 
affords  a  sublime  proof  to  all  ages  and  all  nations,  that  the  South  is 
worthy  of  that  freedom  for  which  she  is  fighting. 

It  is  idle  to  talk  to  Virginia  of  a  government  of  force.  Her  every 
tradition  is  opposed  to  it,  and  we  need  only  look  to  her  proud  flag  to 
know  what  her  answer  would  be  to  such  a  proposition.  She  is  fighting 
against  monarchy  now,  and  would  not  be  likely  to  receive  from  the 
South  what  she  had  rejected  from  the  North.  Great  indeed  would  be 
the  humiliation,  and  severe  the  sarcasm  on  the  Revolution  of  1770,  if 
whilst  republican  institutions  were  growing  stronger  in  the  Canadas, 
under  the  fostering  care  of  the  British  Government,  we  should  sec  them 
miserably  perish  here  by  the  suicidal  hands  of  our  own  people. 

Republicanism  has  been  an  eminently  successful  experiment  in  the 
South,  since  negro  slavery  was  first  planted  on  the  soil  of  Virginia  by 
England.  And  it  will  continue,  it  is  hoped,  to  flourish  and  to 
strengthen  in  this  congenial  atmosphere,  as  long  as,  under  some  name, 
or  form,  the  negro  does  the  plantation  work  of  the  South — provided 
always  we  resolutely  expel  from  our  governments  every  infusion  of 
democracy. 

At  the  end  of  the  old  Revolution,  men  talked  of  monarchy  as  now 
they  do,  but  Virginia,  with  a  firm  countenance,  kept  on  the  even  tenor 
of  b  ttd  Washington,  with  evident  pride,  spoke  of  the  strong 

republican  instincts  of  her  people,  whilst  in  the  same  breath  he  informs 
us  of  the  monarchical  tendencies  of  the  .North.  Our  destiny  in  the 
South  is  linked  with  republican  government,  and  it  is  the  part  of  wis- 
dom, or  at  least  of  prudence,  to  endeavor  to  devise  the  best  form  of  a 
republic. 


LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER  IN   THE   ARMY.  61 

i 

LETTER  XIII. 


Whilst  we  are  engaged  in  considering  the  question  of  constitutional 
amendment,  it  may  not  be  devoid  of  interest,  and  even  instruction,  to 
look  back  to  the  times  when  a  separate  constitutional  government  for 
the  American  republics  was  first  agitated.* 

With  a  perseverance  extending  through  a  period  of  ten  years,  the 
Colonies  resorted  to  remonstrances  and  petitions  for  redress  of 
grievances,  the  old  English  method,  as  we  have  seen,  against  that  taxa- 
tion sought  to  be  introduced  into  the  colonial  system.  After  experience 
had  proved  those  measures  to  be  abortive,  they  resorted  to  a  commercial 
non-intercourse,  and  that  failing,  resolutely  took  up  arms  in  defence  of 
their  invaded  rights.  This  alternative  was  not  based,  in  its  first  con- 
ception, on  independence  of  the  imperial  connexion,  but  was  only  an 
armed  resistance  to  what  they  conceived  to  be  unconstitutional  laws.^ 


*  There  never  existed  a  race  of  public  characters,  who  from  the  rage  of 
novelty  ami  political  experiment  inflicted  on  their  country  such  incurnble 
Wounds,  as  did  the  Southern  leaders  during  the  brief  period  reaching  from  1776 
to  the  installation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Not  to  mention  the 
generation  and  birth  of  that  amorphous  beast,  these  innovators  destroyed  the 
anion  which  existed  between  the  mother  country  and  their  respective  colonies 
Without  having  a  definite  idea  of  a  substitute  for  it;  for  I  do  not  reckon  the 
memorandum,  which  Dr.  Franklin  had  in  his  breeches  pocket,  anything  more 
than  a  rude  sketch  of  a  government  for  the  "  Uuited  Colonies,"  to  answer  the 
temporary  purpose  of  the  armed  resistance  at  first  set  on  foot.  They  enacted 
without  a  shadow  of  constitutional  authority  the  ordinance  of  1787,  by  which 
the  entire  Northwest  region  was  torn  from  the  South  and  added  to  the  North, 
after  having  beguiled  Virginia  to  surrender  it  to  the  central  government,  'the 
professed  object  was  to  enable  these  projectors  to  try  their  plan  of  a  Federal 
Union,  Maryland  being  obstinate  in  her  refusal  to  ratify  the  government  of  the 
Confederation  unless  Virginia  would  agree  to  curtail  her  boundaries,  Virginia 
iding  at  that  time  as  independent  of  all  associated  governments  as  France 
or  Russia.  The  surrender  was  procured  and  the  experiment  made,  and  in  the 
great  war  which  its  failure  has  produced,  the  most  dangerous  enemies  of  the 
ceding  power  are  the  communities  which  were  carved  out  of  the  surrendered 
domain.  I  will  not  bow  the  knee  to  insolent  and  presumptuous  arrogance. 
The  names  of  those  men  deserve  to  be  held  in  eternal  reprobation  here,  and 
instead  of  grottoes,  statues  and  temples  to  their  memory,  they  deserve  to  be  set 
in  the  pillory  of  history. 

f  "The  American  revolution  is  an  example  of  a  war  begun  for  one  purpose 
and  prosecuted  for  another." — Henry  Clay. 


62  LETTERS    TO    AN   OFFICER    IX    THE   ARMY. 

They  proposed,  in  short,'  in  the  language  of  a  distinguished  gentle- 
man of  the  present  day,*fo  fi'jht  in  th  for  their  old  recognized 
rights. 

But  unhappily,  as  some  may  think,  the  object  of  the  armed  move- 
ment became  revolutionary.  The  terms  of  conciliating,  when  proffered 
by  the  British  Cabinet,  tbough  embracing  larger  concessions  than  \ 
ti.-.st  demanded  by  the  Colonial  leaders,  were  rejected;  nor  would  they 
concede  even  an  audience  to  the  royal  commissioners.  Yet  amid  the 
wild  tumult  there  were  those  who  were  constant  to  the  first  opinion,  and 
with  vigor  and  warmth' opposed  the  new  object  of  the  struggle.  Many 
wise  and  good  men  were  embraced  by  that  party,  which  had  its  princi- 
pal strength  in  the  South,  and  nothing  could  be  more  unjust  than  to 
confound  them  with  the  vulgar  herd  of  subinissionists  and  tories. 
Indeed,  at  one  time,  after  the  troubles  began,  they  were  in  close  fellow- 
ship with  the  leading  characters  of  the  Revolution.  Their  motives  none 
impeached,  and  their  reasons  may  justly  claim  a  moment  of  our  atten- 
tion, if  only  as  an  act  of  historical  justice  to  a  neglected  and  almost 
forgotten  class  of  statesmen. 

"When  those  unhappy  difficulties  began,"  they  said,  "they  had 
taken  their  stand  promptly  with  the  Colonies,  and  had  heartily  con- 
curred in  all  the  proposed  methods  of  redress,  even  in  the  resort  to 
arms;  for  they  had  from  the  first  been  satisfied  that  if  the  unjust  pre- 
tensions of  the  British  Parliament  were  submitted  to,  the  Colonies 
would  have  both  property  and  liberty  destroyed.  But  they  considered 
also  the  fate  of  the  British  Constitution  itself  involved,  inasmuch  as  Par- 
liament proposed  to  lay  and  collect  taxes  from  the  Colonics  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  military  force,  and  thus  get  rid  of  the  restraint  of 
the  constituent  body  on  their  action.  If  the  power  of  taxation  without 
representation  could  be  wielded  by  Parliament,  it  was  clear  that  there 
would  be  an  end  of  liberty  everywhere  within  the  extended  precincts  of 
the  British  dominion. 

"  In  taking  up  arms  against  that  tyrannical  abuse,  they  were 
sanctioned  by  the  example  of  their  British  ancestors,  who,  sooner  than 
be  robbed  of  constitutional  liberty,  had  on  more  than  one  occasion 
encountered  all  the  perils  and  hardships  of  civil  war.  But  in  the  hour 
of  victory,  instead  of  pursuing  the  phantom  of  a  republic,  those  ances- 
tors had  sheathed  the  sword,  satisfied  with  having  corrected  abuses  and 
restored  the  constitution  to  its  old  principles.  That  example  they  pro- 
posed to  imitate  throughout,  and  to  remain  banded  and  in  arms,  not 
only  for  the  defence  of  their  old  rights,  but  for  a  constitutional  guaranty, 
such  as  a  colonial  Magna  Charta  or  a  Bill  of  Bights.  But  these  objects 
secured,  they  proposed,  with  the  moderation  of  their  ancestors,  to  lay 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN    THE   ARMY.  63 

down'  their  arms  and  disperse  to  their  homes.*  Some  spoke  of  inde- 
pendence or  submission,  but  they  were  not  confined  to  that  hard 
alternative — the  middle  and  the  safe  path  lay  still  before  them. 

"  There  were,  they  said,  thirteen  colonies  that  had  united  in  the 
policy  of  armed  resistance,  the  only  connection  between  which  was  the 
British  throne.  If  that  throne  were  displaced  that  bond  would  be  sev- 
ered, and  they  would  fall  asunder  and  become  to  each  other,  as  to  the 
rest  of  mankind,  independent  States.  Some  of  those  States,  they  said, 
would  be  small,  too  small  to  maintain  independent  establishments,  whilst 
others  were  of  a  great,  an  undefined  extent.  Could  they  hope  to  pro- 
cure from  the  Creator  an  exemption  from  mortal  frailty?  If  not,  wars 
arising  from  ambition,  or  avarice,  or  jarring  and  misunderstood  inter- 
ests, would  assuredly  visit  those  communities.  Thus  would  be  intro- 
duced into  that  peaceful  brotherhood  the  dreadful  scourge  of  nations, 
and  the  weaker  States  would  submit  to  the  law  of  the  conqueror.  All 
parties,  then,  great  as  well  as  small,  might  bid  adieu  to  those  quiet 
scenes  of  liberty  and  prosperity  which  they  had  enjoyed  in  the  shadow 
of  the  British  throne.  , 

"  Nor  was  their  own  experience  devoid  of  instruction  on  this  point. 
The  colonies,  they  said,  stretched  from  the  far  north  to  a  great  distance 
towards  the  tropics,  embracing  great  diversities  of  climate,  productions, 
and  national  character.  So  widely  dissimilar  were  the  Northern  from 
the  Southern  colonies,  that  even  then,  under  the  colonial  regime,  they 
might  be  considered  as  two  peoples.  These  differences  were  as  well 
understood  in  Europe  as  in  America,  for  the  mediatorial  character  of 
the  imperial  connection  had  alone  restrained  the  deputies  of  the  North 
and  South  from  flying  at  each  other,  when  they  had  been  brought  face 
to  face,  so  violent  and  hostile  were  these  antagonisms.  Here,  then, 
they  insisted,  in  the  very  bosoms  of  the  two  parties,  are  found  the  in- 
extinguishable causes  of  war.  "j" 

*  It  appears  to  have  been  the  determination  of  the  British  Whig  Party,  not 
only  to  repeal  the  offensive  laws,  but  grant  constitutional  securities.  Mr. 
Burke,  in  respect  to  this  point,  says  :  "  My  idea,  therefore,  without  considering 
whether  we  yield  as  a  matter  of  right,  or  grant  as  a  matter  of  favor,  is  to  admit 
thi'  people  of  our  colonies  into  an  interest  in  the  Constitution  ;  and  by  recording  that 
admission  iu  the  journals  of  Parliament,  to  give  them  as  strong  an  assurauce  as 
the  nature  of  the  thing  will  admit,  that  we  mean  forever  to  adhere  to  that 
solemn  declaration  of  systematick  indulgence." 

f  The  mediatorial  functions  of  the  British  connection  are  dwelt  upon,  with 
his  usual  force,  by  Mr.  Burke,  and  he  mentions  some  examples  which  I  havo 
forgotten.  The  relations  of  dependence  which  existed  at  one  period  between 
the  republics  of  Northern  Italy  and  the  German  Empire  afford  another  exam- 
ple. It  was  anterior  to  the  time  when  the  ambition  and  cruelty  of  Frederick 
Barbarossa  alienated  to  so  great  an  extent  the  attachment  of  those  republicans 


G-l  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN    THE    ARMY. 

"  So  manifest  were  those  dangers,  they  continued,  that  it  was  proba- 
ble,  n'ay,  it  was  certain,  that  the  leaders  of  the  proposed  revolution 
would  try  the  experiment  of  a  federal  union  among  the  thirteen  States. 
But  would  not  that  be  flying  from  one  danger  into  another,  perhaps  into 
a  more  fatal  danger?  A  mere  league  or  loose  confederacy  would  not 
re-place  the  old  tie,  answer  thfi  ambitious  and  vaulting  expectations  of 
the  revolutionary  leaders,  nor  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  country. 
les,  history  abounded  with  examples  of  such  expedients,  all  short- 
lived, and  in  their  dissolution  generally  productive  of  war.  To  estab- 
lish a  firm,  lasting,  and  at  the  same  time  efficient  and  active  union 
among  those  parties,  would  require  a  government;  not  a  simple  govern- 
ment, however,  but  a  complex  federal  government,  armed  with  sufficient 
powers,  and  so  skilfully  balanced  and  its  interior  organism  so  nicely  ad- 
d,  that  the  government  in  its  operations  would  bear  everywhere 
with  an  equal  weight,  and  diffuse  its  benefits  with  an  impartial  hand, 
and  yet  be  so  restrained  by  constitutional  checks,  as  not  to  encroach 
upon  the  reserved  authorities  of  the  States. 

"  The  model  of  such  a  government  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  whole 
range  of  ancient  and  modern  history,  and  without  a  model  they  would 
be  compelled  to  originate  one.  The  nearest  approximation,  they  said, 
to  such  a  government,  was  the  union  which  held  the  British  Empire 
together,  from  which  it  was  proposed  then  to  withdraw.  But  there  was 
a  difference  of  principle  between  the  British  union  and  the  one  with 
which  they  proposed  to  substitute  it.  The  British  union  vested  on  an 
authority  external  to  the  Colonies  and  independent  of  their  action, 
rendering  any  collision  between  the  parts  impossible.  States  and  popu- 
lations, most  opposed  in  interest  and  character,  might,  side  by  side, 
dwell  in  amity  as  members  of  such  an  association;  a  truth  fully  evi- 
denced by  the  fact,  that  nations  in  opposite  quarters  of  the  globe,  differ- 
in"'  in  all  the  main  characteristics  of  nations,  such  as  religion,  manners, 
language,  customs,  pursuits  and  origin,  were  still  grouped  in  most  per- 
fect harmony  under  the  ample  folds  of  the  British  flag,  contributing, 
each  through  its  commerce,  to  the  vigor  of  the  national  arm,  and  receiv- 
ing from  it  prosperity  and  protection.  But  would  there  be  any  disinter- 
ested and  impartial  hands  in  the  contemplated  American  Union,  in  which 
power  over  the  common  government  could  be  placed?  So  far  from  it, 
power,   of   necessity,   would   have    to    be    committed  to    some    of  the 


from  the  empire.  The  authority  on  this  point  I  quote  from  the  learned  page  ©f 
Ilallam  :  "  1"  <!ie  earlier  stages  of  the  Lombard  Republics,  their  differences,  as 
well  mutual  as  domestic,  had  been  frequently  appeased  by  the  mediation  of  the 
emperors;  and  the  loss  of  this  salutary  influence  may  be  considered  as  no  slight 
evil  attache!  to  that  absolute  emancipation  which  Italy  attained  in  the  thirteenth 
century." 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE  .ARMY.  65 

parties,  the  very  parties  perhaps  who  might  be  exposed  to  an  over- 
powering temptation  to  abuse  it.  There  would  be  arrayed  against 
each  other  on  that  theatre  every  conflicting  interest  of  the  whole 
union,  the  passions,  also,  and  the  follies,  tho  local  irritations  aud 
the  antipathies  of  ill-assorted  and  divided  populations.  It  must  be 
obvious,  that  so  far  from  the  government  of  the  union  being  a  centre 
of  concord  aud  repose,  it  would  soon  become  a  gladiatorial  arena  for  the 
embittered  strife  of  hostile  factions.  They  took  occasion  to  observe, 
that  it  was'  that  opposition  of  interest  added  to  the  strong  antipathies 
engendered  between  neighboring  communities  or  different  portions  of 
the  same  community,  often  by  very  trifling  causes,  as  much  as  the  feeble- 
ness of  the  human  intellect,  which  led  to  doubts  of  the  capacity  of  any 
people  for  self-government,  and  which  had  induced  many  nations  to  de- 
mand the  impartiality  of  kings.  Indeed,  on  that  ground  alone  the  ad- 
vocates of  hereditary  despotism  had  ever  defended  it,  as  on  the  whole 
the  most  excellent  government  for  mankind.  Owing  to  the  nature  of 
man,  and  the  differences  pervading  every  large  society,  there  had  ever 
been  manifested  a  strong  inclination  in  such  cases  to  schism.  This  dis- 
position had  already  shown  itself  in  many,  if  not  in  all  of  these  colo- 
nies, and  it  was  the  part  of  prudence  rather  to  disperse  and  mollify 
those  evils,  than  to  collect  and  intensify  them. 

"  Hosv  long,  they  enquired,  would  the  North  and  the  South,  those 
hostile  sections,  be  likely  to  continue  united,  with  the  dearest  interests 
of  the  one  disposed  of,  perhaps  sacrificed  by  the  selfish  considerations 
of  the  other  ?  The  small  colonics  were'  then  perfectly  protected  by  the 
impartial  action  of  the  British  union,  but.  what  would  be  their  fate  iu 
a  scuffle  of  interests  with  the  large  States?  It  would  seem  to  be  a  self- 
evident  proposition,  that  among  parties  of  such  irreconcilable  tempers 
and  quarrelling  interests,  an  attempt  to  carry  on  a  common  government, 
instead  of  uniting  them  in  the  bonds  of  brotherhood  and  peace,  would 
be  of  all  devices  the  one  most  likely  to  engender  war.  There  would  be 
but  one  hope  of  escape,  and  that  would  be  derived  from  a  perfect  politi- 
cal and  social  organization,  which  they  had  not  had  experience  enough 
even  to  conceive  of,  much  less  to  make.  :;: 

"A  good  government  is  the  growth  of  many  ages.     It  is  only  when 

*  An  impartial  exercise  of  authority  is  necessary  to  constitute  a  good,  or 
even  a  tolerable  government.  Numerous  have  been  the  devices  resorted  to  by 
different  nations  to  compass  this  end.  Despotic  power  is  the  means  which  the 
mass  of  the  human  race  are  compelled  to  rely  on.  In  popular  systems,  where 
there  are  dividing  lines,  the  principle  of  an  equilibrium  or  a  concurrent  majority 
is  generally  resorted  to.  This,  in  theory,  is  an  admirable  mode  of  attaining  im- 
partiality in  the  government,  that  extremely  intricate  problem  t6uched  upon  in 
the  text.     Mr.  Calhoun  has  with  great  ability  discussed  this  subject  iu  his  essay 

5 


G6  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

it  is  produced  by  the  combined  action  of  national  character  and  na- 
tional circumstances,  that  a  full  correspondence  between  the  nation  and 
its  political  institutions  can  ever  exist.  The  well  nigh  insuperable  dif- 
ficulties to  be  overcome  In  constructing  stable  and  fiee  institutions  must 
be  apparent  to  every  reflecting  mind  ;  and  yet,  upon  suocess  in  that  ex- 
periment, all  hopes  depended.  Impressed  by  the  magnitude  of  .such 
an  undertaking,  the  greatest  living  authority,  if  not  the  greatest  au- 
thority of  auy  age  or  nation,  had  said  :  "  Surely  we  all  know,  that  the 
machine  of  a  free  constitution  is  no  simple  thing,  but  as  intricate 
as  delicate  as  it  is  valuable.  A  constitution  made  up  of  balanced  pow- 
ers must  ever  be  a  critical  thing."  *  To  this  weighty  opinion  they 
might  add  also  the  sanction  of  antiquity  as  to  the  extreme  difficulty  of  the 
undertaking  and  the  time  required  for  its  perfection  ;  for  Cicero,  in  his 
Republic,  had  declared  that  it  would  demand  not  less  than  a  thousand 
years. 

on  government.  But  I  heard  it  sagaciously  remarked  of  that  work,  "that  it 
bad  convinced  the  speaker  of  the  impracticability  of  ever  being  able  to  form  a 
stable  representative  system  here,  or  indeed  anywhere  else." 

In  the  Lombard  Republics,  they  employed  about  the  eud  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, a  very  singular  expedient  to  procure  a  disinterested  public  authority. 
"About  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  a  new  and  singular  species  of  magistracy 
was  introduced  in  the  Lombard  cities.  During  the  tyranny  of  Frederick  I.,  ho 
had  appointed  officers  of  his  own,  called  podestas,  instead  of  the  elective  con- 
suls. It  is  remarkable,  that  this  memorial  of  despotic  power  should  not  have 
excited  insuperable  alarm  and  disgust  in  the  free  republics.  But,  on  the  contrary, 
they  almost  universally,  after  the  peace  of  Constance,  revived  an  office  which 
had  been  abrogated  when  they  first  rose  in  rebellion  against  Frederick.  From 
the  experience,  we  must  presume,  of  the  partiality  which  their  domestic  factions 
carried  into  the  administration  of  justice,  it  became  a  general  practice  to  tlect, 
by  the  name  of  podesta,  a  citizen  of  some  neighboring  State  as  their  general, 
their  criminal  judge,  and  preserver  of  the  peace.  He  was  invariably  a  man  of 
noble  family,  even  in  those  cities  which  excluded  their  own  nobility  from  any 
share  in  the  government.  He  received  a  fixed  salary,  and  was  compelled  to  re- 
main in  the  city  alter  the  expiration  of  his  office,  for  the  purpose  of  answering 
such  charges  as  might  be  adduced  against  his  conduct.  He  could  neither  marry 
a  native  of  the  city,  nor  have  any  relation  resident  within  the  district,  nor  even, 
so  great  was  their  jealousy,  eat  or  drink  in  the  house  of  any  citizen.  The  au- 
thority of  these  foreign  magistrates  was  not  by  any  means  alike  in  all  cities. 
In  some  he  seems  to  have  superseded  the  consuls,  and  commanded  the  armies 
in  war*.  In  others,  as  in  Milan  and  Florence,  his  authority  was  merely  judicial. 
We  find  in  some  of  the  old  annals,  the  years  headed  by  the  names  of  the  podestas, 
as  by  those  of 'the  consuls  in  the  history  of  Rome." — Ilallavi. 

The  British  procure,  at  this  date,  an  impartial  exercise  of  the  executive 
authority  in  the  dependencies  of  the  empire,  by  sending  out  governor-generals 
from  the  British  Isles,  an  indispensable  qualification  being  that  the  governor- 
general  shall  not  be  a  native  of  the  country  he  is  to  preside  over. 

*  Burke's  Speech  to  the  Electors  of  Bristol,  November  3d,  7774. 


LETTERS  TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE  ARMY.  67 

"  To  originate  a  government  among  the  thirteen  parties,  which  would 
replace  the  British  connection,  was  a  great  task  which  demigods  or 
angels  might  perform,  but  to  which  the  feeble  powers  of  man  were  in- 
adequate. The  great  majority  of  the  people  of  these  colonies  had  led 
obscure  but  contented  lives,  engaged  in  the  peaceful  cultivation  of  the 
virgin  soil  bestowed  upon  them  by  a  bountiful  Creator.  They  had  had 
no  political  life  outside  of  their  provincial  assemblies,  and  without  ex- 
perience it  was  absolute  maduess  to  plunge  into  so  difficult  a  business. 
Experience,  indeed,  was  the  only  safe  guide  in  the  affairs  of  life,  but 
especially  so  in  this  the  most  difficult  of  any,  and  only  very  rash  young 
men,  or  very  weak  old  ones,  would  be  apt  to  undervalue  it.  For  them- 
selves, with  such  mighty  interests  at  stake  as  the  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  so  many  communities,  and  that  of  their  unburn  and  innocent 
posterity,  they  could  not  consent  to  unchain  the  tempest  of  revolution 
and  devastate  an  entire  continent.  They  could  not  consent  to  go  forward 
in  that  business. 

'•'  Some  of  the  advocates  of  the  proposed  revolution,  they  said,  spoke 
of  independence  as  a  distinct  and  substantive  blessing;  but  let  such 
remember  that  when  the  proposed  federation  is  formed  and  a  third 
power  called  into  existence,  which  the  central  organ  would  be,  that  the 
independence  of  the  several  States  would  be  as  effectually  confiscated  as 
it  then  was  surrendered  to  the  supremacy  of  the  British  government — 
to  a  greater  extent,  indeed,  for  the  jurisdiction  which  the  new  power 
would  be  called  on  to  exercise  in  and  over  the  several  States,  would 
greatly  transcend  that  exercised  by  the  old  jurisdiction. 

"  Until  that  bright  but  erring  genius,  Charles  Townsend,  introduced 
the  fatal  proposition  to  tax  the  colonies,  America,  they  said,  was  loyal 
and  happy,  and  as  soon  as  those  impolitic  and  wicked  measures  were 
abandoned,  would  be  loyal  and  happy  again.  To  effect  a  total  repeal 
and  abandonment  of  those  obnoxious  laws,  it  was  only  necessary  to  perse- 
vere in  the  plan  of  armed  resistance ;  for  that  policy  to  which  those 
laws  were  referable,  was  supported  by  a  party  in  England  which  would 
speedily  be  driven-from  power.  It  would  be  a  great  error  to  regard 
that  policy  as  the  fixed  intention  of  the  imperial  head.  On  the  contrary, 
a  great  division  of  the  British  people  sympathized  with  the  oppressions 
and  distresses  of  the  colonies,  and  a  great  and  growing  parliamentary 
opposition  had  been  set  on  foot  and  was  sustained  by  characters  of  the 
greatest  weight  and  talents  in  the  country.  The  event,  they  said,  if 
they  continued  to  persevere  in  the  original  design,  could  not  be  doubt- 
ful, when  to  the  justice  of  their  cause  they  added  the  influence  of  those 
powerful  auxiliaries.*     But  if  that  design  was  abandoned  and  the  steps 

*  That  too  much  influence  was  not  attributed  by  those  holding  these  views  to  the 
party  sympathizing  with  the  colonies,  is  clear  from  subsequent  legislation — 


68  LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER    IN  THE  ARMY. 

of  independence  taken,  their  British  allies  would  all  fall  away  and  be 
converted  into  enemies,  and  the  colonies  would  feel  then  the  full  weight 
of  the  national  arm. 

"The  British  Empire,  they  insisted,  of  which  the  American  colonies 
constituted  so   important  a  pi  In    truth,  a  comprehensive  union 

of  States  encircling  the  globe,  dependent  in  certain  respects  on  the 
British  Isles,  but  each  provided  with  a  domestic  government,  under  the 
control  of  its  people,  having  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  their  most  impor- 
tant concerns.  The  principles  of  that  union,  as  alreadj  were 
such  that  the  States  embraced  within  it,  however  dissimilar  in  interest 
and  social  character,  could  never  be  brought  into  collision,  but  must 
dwell  in  tranquillity  together,  members  of  the  same  peaceful  household; 
for  that  great  union  was  founded  on  the  two  harmonizing  principles  of 
local  self-government  and  commerce,  the  benefits  of  which  being  recip- 
rocal, tended  every  day  to  strengthen  the  connection.  In  that  con 
lation  of  States  each  had  a  motion  of  its  own,  whilst  the  whole  revolved 
around  the  British  throne  as  a  fixed  and  central  body.  But  taxation 
of  the  members  formed  no  part  of  the  system ;  it  was  a  dangerous  inno- 
vation not  to  be  tolerated,  and  which  the  home  government  would  be 
driven  to  abandon.  It  was  true  the  colonies  had  contributed  large  sums 
to  the  imperial  treasury,  to  aid  in  defraying  the  expenses  incurred  in 
their  own  protection,  but  the  contributions  had  always  been  voluntary, 
and  the  taxes  laid  and  collected  by  their  own  assemblies.  Such  contri- 
butions were  but  just,  and,  no  doubt,  when  the  old  feeling  should  be  re- 
stored and  the  wealth  of  the  colonies  increased,  such  presents  would  be 
resumed  when  occasion  should  demand,  and  even  be  applied  to  new  and 
more  general  objects. 

"It  was  worth,  they  thought,  a  civil  war  to  maintain  and  establish 
on  solid  foundations  such  a  system  as  that,  which   brought  so   iarge  a 

adopted  though  it  was  when  the  controversy  hod  passed  beyond  the  reach  of 
such  a  remedy.  By  18  Geo.  III.,  c.  3,  \  VI,  the  King  and  Parliament  of 
Great  Britain  declare  tint  "from  thenceforth  they  will  not  imptfse  any  duty,  tax, 
&c.,  payable  in  any  of  the  King's  colonies,  provinces  and  plantations  in 
North  America  and  the  West  Indies,  except  for  the  regulation  of  commerce, 
the  produce  whereof  is  always  to  be  applied  to  the  use  of  the  colon)/  in  which  it  is 
.''  See  Edwards'  West  Indies,  Book  6,  page  847. 
During  the  vexed  controversy  with  her  North  American  colonies  about  the 
right  of  taxation,  Great  Britain  sought  to  confound  the  right  to  lay  and  collect 
revenue  duties,  which  the  colonies  warmly  contested,  with  the  duties  for  the. 
regulation  of  commerce,  which  the  coloniv  p  be  lawful.     Dr.  Franklin, 

the  American  Commissioner  to  London,  with  great  aonteness,  proposed  to  settle 
the  coutroversy  by  government  agreeing  to  turn  over  the  duty  when  collected 
"to  the  use  of  the  colony  iu  which  it  is  levied."  Such  was  the  origiu  of  the 
provision  in  the  Statute  of  George  III. 

t 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER    IN    THE   ARMY.  69 

portion  of  the  earth's  surface  under  the  same  mild  sceptre.  The  system, 
resting  on  local  self-government  and  free  commerce  as  massive  pillars, 
■was  capable  of  indefinite  expansion,  and,  if  wisdom  and  moderation 
prevailed,  the  sublime  spectacle  might  be  presented  to  mankind  of  the 
ambassadors  of  independent  States  seeking  for  their  countries  admis- 
sion into  the  expanding  circle  of  the  British  union,  as  the  ambassadors 
of  independent  States  once  sought  the  security  and  protection  enjoyed 
by  the  'Friends  and  Allies  of  the  Roman  People;'  or,  if  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  as  a  punishment  for  their  ingratitude  for  its  signal  favors, 
that  movement  for  independence  was  destined  to  prevail,  mankind  might 
witness  the  instructive  event  of  some  or  all  of  these  erring  daughters 
seeking  again  the  parental  roof  to  lay  their  weary  heads  once  more  in 
the  bosom  of  England. 

"They  admitted,  however,  in  conclusion,  that  the  bonds  of  the  Brit- 
ish union  could  not  last  forever,  aud  that  that  state  of  wardship,  if 
any  chose  to  consider  it  as  such,  would  in  the  flight  of  ages  come  to  an 
end;  but  this  was  no  just  reason  for  premature  action.  A  season  of 
maturity  must  come  for  nations  as  well  as  for  individuals,  and  when 
that  should  arrive  these  colonies,  or  rather  these  affiliated  States,  would 
drop  from  the  parent  tree;  but  it  was  their  duty  to  wait  for  that  period 
of  full  development.  The  time  for  separation  and  the  commencement 
of  national  life,  would,  come  when  it  might,  be  a  critical  one  for  the 
colonies;  but  if  they  would  wait  for  the  gradual  process  of  nature, 
with  the  danger  would  come  the  means  of  escape;  for  political  institu- 
tions and  political  demarcations,  along  with  political  habits,  would  have 
been  formed,  qualifying  the  American  States,  as  one,  or  several  nations, 
to  take  an  independent  position  in  the  world."* 

*  "America  had,  except  the  commercial  restraint,  every  characteristic  mark 
of  a  free  people  in  all  her  internal  concerns.  She  had  the  image  of  the  British 
Constitution.  She  had  the  Bubstance.  She  was  taxed  by  her  own  representa- 
tives. She  chose  most  of  her  own  magistrates.  She  paid  them  all.  She  had 
in  effect  the  sole  disposal  of  her  own  internal  government.  The  whole  state  of 
commercial  servitude  and  civil  liberty,  taken  together,  is  certainly  not  perfect 
freedom  ;  but  comparing  it  with  the  ordinary  circumstances  of  human  nature, 
it  was  an  happy  and  liberal  condition." — Burke's  Speeches. 

That  sole  restraint  here  spoken  of  by  Burke,  the  royal  commissioners  were 
authorized  to  abolish,  if,  without  it,  the  Americans  could  not  be  brought  to  an 
amicable  adjustment.  But  Lord  North,  under  whose  administration  the  con- 
cession was  proffered,  considered  that  these  trade  laws  wen'  el  little  influence 
in  securing  to  Great  Britainjthe  commerce  of  America,  which  was  enjoyed  by 
Englan'd  as  the  natural  and  irresistible  advantage  of  a  commercial  preference. 

The  colonies  of  England  enjoy  as  great,  »  liberty  almost  as  the  people  of  the 
British  [sles.  Fiut  very  striking  is  the  difference  with  the  colonies  of  France.  Each 
nation  has  transported  to  its  colonies  its  own  political  principle.  The  English 
colonies,  under  the  encouragements  of  freedom,  have   ever  thriven,   whereas 


70  LETTERS    TO    AX    OFFICER    IX    TIIE    ARMY. 

those   of  France  have  often   languished.     Canada  presents   a  very  conclusive 
example.     [I  >  ■  French  colony  from  its  Bret  settlement,  and  under  the 

able  administration  of  Chatham  was  conquered  by  the  British  arms.     Under 
the  French  monarchical  system,  public  prosperity  was  not  known  and  corrup-  • 
tion  and  mismanagement  pervaded  every  department.     Great  Britain  intro- 

along  with  her  supremacy,  the  piinciple  of  self-government,  and  at  once 
the  old  skin  was  cast  off.  Under  the  preseut  Emperor  the  dependencies  of 
!  are  doubtless  better  governed.      But  who  will  answer  for  his  life?— and 

after  him  the  flood.     France  is  almost  as   liable  to  internal   storms  as  the  cave 

is.     See  Elliott  Warburton's  Hist.  Canada. 


LETTEKS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE  ARMY.  71 


LETTER    XIV. 

The  first  transient  successes  of  the  war,  added  to  the  provocation 
given  by  the  employment  of  Hessian  mercenaries  by  the  British  Min- 
istry, enabled  the  revolutionary  party  to  carry  their  point. 

Dire  have  been  the  results  of  that  movement  on  what  were  the  South- 
ern Colonies.  Their  liberty  and  prosperity  were  confounded  in  tho 
same  ruin.  A  syncope  seized  the  entire  body.  Virginia  had  been  the 
Old  Dominion,  an  honored  and  flourishing  member  of  the  empire. 
After  a  short  interval,  during  which  she  existed  as'a  free  commonwealth, 
she  was,  through  the  instrumentality  of  an  elaborate  constitution,  de- 
graded into  a  bondswoman  of  New  England,  which  had  been  sustained 
by  bounties  from  the  royal  treasury,  and  patronized  by  Southern  planters 
for  its  enterprising  slave  merchants.  Such  are  the  vicissitudes  which 
attend  nations  ! 

"0  change  beyond  report,  thought,  or  belief!" 

But  for  that  event,  as  far  as  the  destiny  of  nations  can  be  foreseen, 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  with  uncontracted  limits,  would  have 
presented  a  picture  of  prosperity,  such  as  is  now  witnessed  in  the 
Canadas,  but  in  degree  infinitely  surpassing  anything  that  is  to  be  found 
there.  Under  the  indulgent  patronage  of  the  British  Government,  they 
have,  in  the  British  Provinces  of  North  America,  a  federal  government, 
which  will  be  corrected  and  improved  as  circumstances  demand.  It  is 
thus  that  Great  Britain  is  training  up  these  communities  for  the  period 
of  national  maturity.  Perhaps,  under  tho  same  benign  influence,  we 
might  have  had  here  in  the  South  a  similar  system.  But  why  stop  to 
indulge  in  vain  reverie  ? 

The  ligaments  which  bound  the  American  Republics  to  the  British 
Union  were  severed,  and  the  leaders  by  whose  hands  it  was  done  have 
been  with  us  the  subjects  of  unceasing  eulogy.  The  deed  proclaimed 
them  bold  men,  but  before  they  receive  from  posterity  the  laurel 
reserved  for  the  wise,  it  should  be  established  that  they  have  conferred 
a  correspondent  blessing  on  their  country.  They  surpassed,  indeed,  tho 
exploit  of  him  who  burned  the  Ephesian  temple;  bnt  was  it  theirs  to 
imitate  the  skill  of  the  artist  who  erected  another  in  its  place  ?  It  is 
one  thing  to  be  the  architects  of  ruin,  but  quite  another  thing  to  be  the 
architects  of  construction. 

The  States,  jealous  of  their  new  sovereignty,  when  they  came  to  the 


72  LETTERS   TO   AN    OFFICER   IX    TIIE   ARMY. 

construction  of  fi  fi  rnment  to  replace  the  old  connexion,  dis- 

covered a  strong  disinclination  to  part  with  power.  The  vision  of  a 
well-orgai  iwerfal  central  government  which  had  danced  hefore 

them,  was  discovered  to  be  a  spectral  illusion  which  they  could  not 
sieze — a  shadow  that  mocked  and  eluded  them.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
dreams  of  statesmen,  as  well  as  of  poets,  flit  into  thin  air.  Then  first 
sprung  into  existence  ti>e  States  Rights  and  Federal  parties,  which 
continued,  with  various  fortunes  to  divide  the  opinion  of  the  country, 
until  they  finally  divided  the  country  itself. 

The  large  States  sought  power  in  the  new  government  in  proportion 
to  their  magnitude,  their  population,  and  their  wealth,  or  taxation;  hut 
the  small  Suites  were  loth  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  vortex  of  federal 
power,  which  they  said  was  only  a  bloodless  and  gradual  conquest,  and 
they  therefore  strenuous  I   that   the   principle  of  sovereignty, 

which  existed  equally  in  a  small  as  in  a  great  body,  entitled  them  to  an 
equal  representation  in  the  common  government.  The  South,  too,  as 
thoughtful  men  had  anticipated,  was  arrayed  against  the  North,  and  the 
North  against  the.  South,  on  the  delicate  and  important  questions  of 
contribution  and  representative  power.  The  North  urged  that  slaves, 
of  which  the  South  had  a  great  many,  whilst  they  had  very  few,  ought 
not  to  be  represented  in  the  new  government — a  freeman's  republic  they 
called  it — because  the  negro  could  neither  fight  nor  vote;  but  the  South 
contended  that  as  her  slaves  would,  to  a  great  extent,  create  the  wealth 
with  which  the  war  would  be  carried  on  and  the  federal  government  itself 
be  supported,  they  were  in  justice  as  well  entitled  to  be  taken  in  the 
representative  estimates,  as  the  white  laborers  of  the  North,  who  occu- 
pied a  corresponding  position. 

Thus  divided  on  the  primary  principles  of  their  establishment,  they 
could  do  nothing,  the  South  not  having  yet  been  taught  the  valuable 
secret  of  making'  "a  compromise"  by  which  the  matter  in  dispute  is 
yielded,  and  things  had  to  drag  along  as  they  best  could,  the  States 
undertaking  to  work  a  federal  system  without  a  federal  constitution; — 
a  plan,  however,  not  worse  for  the  South  than  the  one  at  a  later  period 
adopted,  of  living  under  a  constitution  of  which  the  stronger  party  had 
the  exclusive  power  of  construction. 

A  constitution  was,  however,  after  the  lapse  of  several  years,  agreed 
to,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  war  proclaimed.  But  when  tried  it  was 
found  to  be  so  imperfectly  developed  in  important  respects,  that  the 
machine  would  not  work.  So  defective  was  that  6rst  experiment,  that 
the  government  was  pronounced  to  be  fit  neither  for  war. nor  peace,* 
and  to  resemble  a  man  moving  on  crutches.     Anarchy  prevailed  in  the 

*  Alexander  Hamilton. 


LETTERS  TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY.  73 

federal  system,  and  civil  disturbances,  and  at  length  civil  war,  began  to 
convulse  the  North.  Men  began  to  say  that  it  would  be  well  to  return 
to  the  old  English  fold — this  especially  in  New  England,  where  they 
mightily  missed  the  fishing  bounties.  The  patriots  were  dismayed  and 
crest-fallen,  and  began  to  open  their  eyes  to  the  truth,  that  whilst  it  was 
very  easy  to  make  a  government,  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  make  a 
good  one,  particularly  where  so  many  wills  had  to  be  consulted.  At 
length  tardy  justice  was  done  to  their  old  opponents,  the  moderate 
tones,  whom  they  had  mocked  and  stigmatized  as  "  kings'  men,"  and 
hunted  from  their  homes,  driving  them,  where  they  could  not  intimi- 
date or  buy  them,  into  penury  and  exile. 

The  grand  convention,  however,  extricated  the  States  from  their 
pressing  dangers,  not  by  ameuding  the  existing  constitution,  whose 
faults  they  had  learned,  as  we  have  already  seen,  but  by  making,  from 
turret  to  foundation,  a  new  one — that  imperial  national  constitution 
which  converted  the  Southern  republics  into  vassals  of  the  North,  and 
from  which  we  are  with  one  hand  fighting  to  be  free,  whilst  with  a  lau- 
dable consistency  we  hold  fast  to  it  with  the  other. 

Those  repeated  failures  in  the  federal  experiment,  so  clearly  predicted 
a  hundred  years  ago,  begin  to  turn  the  thoughts  of  some  men  to  a  sim- 
ple monarchy,  while  the  thoughts  of  others  tend  towards  a  Eur- 
connexion,  by  which  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  destructive  intestine 
troubles ;  these  bein'g  willing  to  sacrifice  something  of  popular  liberty 
and  a  separate  existence  to  political  stability.  But,  sir,  we  will  not  be 
dismayed  !  The  penalty  incurred  by  that  generation  has  been  paid  by 
this;  the  bond  has  been  satisfied;  and  perhaps  Providence  may  accept 
the  expiation  of  this' war  for  the  political  errors  of  our  forefathers. 
We  will  put  away  our  own  vain  imaginations,  and,  acknowledging  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  constructing,  even  under  the  most  auspicious  influ- 
ences, a  stable  republic,  will,  with  docility  and  reverence,  listen  to  the 
inspired  Pythoness  of  the  Past,  the  only  one  of  the  Oracles  not  now 
dumb. 

In  the  treasury  of  our  knowledge  there  has  been  gathered  so  great  a  fund 
of  political  experience,  that  we  may  perhaps  be  able  to  form  a  confederate 
government,  whose  every  part  will  have  been  sufficiently  tested;  for, 
as  part  of  our  own  wealth  of  experience,  we  may  rightly  reckon  that 
of  a  cotemporary  cation,  obtained  while  striving  after  and  finally  secur- 
ing those  stable  institutions  of  liberty  which  have  taken  form  and 
excellence  under  our*own  eyes.  But  in  using  these  treasures  a  special 
discretion  is  required;  else  the  wisdom  of  experience  will  be  changed 
in  our  hands  into  the  folly  of  experiment.  We  must  be  as  wary  when 
we  borrow  from  the  English  Constitution  as  when  we  borrowed  from 
the  Euglish  laws;  taking  only  such  things  as  are  suitable  to  the  condi- 


74  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    THE    ARMY. 

tion  of  our  country  ami  the  character  of  our  people.  A  rash  imitation 
of  the  institutions  and  laws  of  foreign  countries  has  ever  been  con.-id- 
ered  the  mark  of  a  light,  inconstant  people;  yet  it  was  reckoned  a 
stroke  of  wisdom  in  the  Roman  Senate  to  send  commissioners  abl 
to  collect  such  things  as  were  deemed  worthy  t<>  he  incorporated  into 
the  Roman  .State.  From  this  original  sprung  the  laws  of  the  Ten 
Tables,  the  basis  of  Roman  jurisprudence. 

■at,  should  be  admitted  into  our  constitution  and  re- 
ceive the  stamp  of  public  authority,  that  has  not  been  passed  through 
the  crucible  of  experience.  As  has  be<  n  observed  with  great  force  and 
truth  of  untested  political  theories,  ''No  difficulties  occur  in  whal 
not  been  tried.  Criticism  is  almost  baffled  in  discovering  the  defects 
of  what  has  never  existed  ;  and  eager  enthusiasm  and  cheating  hope 
have  all  the  wide  field  of  imagination  in  which  they  may  expatiate 
with  little  or  no  opposition." 

You  will  agree,  perhaps,  that  one  of  the  most  solid  securities  against 
a  convulsive  revolution,  and  indeed  any  revolution  except  such  as 
ought  to  occur,  that  could  be  desired  in  governments  like  our  own,  a 
security  as  well  against  maladministration  as  against  oppression,  would 
be  with  precision  to  declare  the  relations  of  the  parties  to  the  govern- 
ment— nay,  on  the  very  forehead  of  the  Constitution,  in  characters  of 
living  light,  to  imprint  the  primordial,  inalienable  and  unalienated 
llight  of  Secession ;  and,  going  a  step  farther,  to  effectuate  this  sovereign, 
bloodless  cure  for  all  the  ills  of  goverument  by  designating  the  mode 
in  which  that  right  should  be  exercised.  Thus  acknowledged  and 
secured,  the  right  of  secession  would  act  as  a  restraint  upon  the  agj 
sions  of  power,  more  effectual  thau  all  the  homilies  of  "  the  Farewell 
Address,"  and  all  the  paper  barriers  engendered  in  the  fertile  brain  of 
Mr.  Madison;  whilst  the  inconveniences  which  always  must  attend 
revolutionary  changes,  will  assuredly  prevent  any  rash  and  inconsiderate 
resort  to  that  remedy.  Like  the  ultima  ratio  regumt  that  remedy 
would  only  be  resorted  to  after  all  other  remedies  had  failed.  Thus 
viewed,  the  right  of  secession  deserves  to  be  placed  in  the  highest  rank 
of  conservative,  constitutional  principles,  as  I  shall  now  establish  by 
one  of  the  most  sublime  events  in  the  history  of  nations. 

Who  does  not  remember  the  origin  of  the  Tribunitiau  Power,  the 
palladium  of  lloman  liberty,  and  that  it  sprang  from  an  exercise  of 
the  right  of  secession  ?  Unable  to  endure  the  oppressions  of  the 
Roman  aristocracy,  the  commonalty,  as  butter  than  a  civil  war,  adopted 
the  heroic  resolution  to  dissolve  the  social  compact  with  the  Patricians 
and  withdraw,  or,  as  we  would  say,  secede  from  the  lloman  Stale. 
They  took  their  families,  their  household  goods,  their  slaves,  their 
cattle  aud  their  arms,  and  marched  out  of  the  city  to  the  Sacred  Mount, 


LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   TIIE   ARMY.  75 

as  ever  after  it  was  called,  there  to  found  a  new  commonwealth,  leaving 
the  silent  streets  and  deserted  temples  to  their  oppressors.  Did  Rome 
sink  down  destroyed  by  this  unnatural  division  of  her  body  ?  No  ! 
Compromise  ensued,  the  Tribunitian  veto  was  introduced  into  the 
Roman  Constitution,  civil  dissensions  were  quelled,  and  Rome  became 
the  mistress  of  the  world,  spreading  her  civilization  everywhere  and 
sending  down  to  us,  in  the  sacred  vessels  of  her  literature,  the  evi- 
dences of  her  wisdom  and  her  power. 

Look  again,  sir  !  Is  not  the  right  of  dissociation  as  deeply  laid  in 
the  equity  of  nature,  as  the  right  of  association?  Whence  is  derived, 
from  what  code  of  writfeu  or  unwritten  law,  the  right  of  one  genera- 
tion, at  the  best  but  a  life-tenant,  to  try  those  associated  experiments, 
without  providing  a  mode  by  which,  in  the  event  of  their  failure,  the 
false  step  may  be  recovered  without  invoking  the  aid  of  the  sword  ? 
For  us,  who  have  experienced  the  evil  results  of  such  inconsiderate 
action,  not,  to  leave  the  door  of  secession  ajar,  would  be  as  wicked  as 
it  would  be  improvident. 

The  right  of  expatriation  and  the  right  of  secession,  are  they  not 
kindred  principles?  Are  they  not  twin-born  ?  No  enlightened  nation, 
whatever  obsolete  codes  may  declare,  now  denies  the  right  of  expatria- 
tion. It  may  be  denied  among  the  Mongolian  nations,  but  not  in 
Christendom.  Even  the  relentless  despotism  of  Russia,  half  Asiatic 
as  it  is,  admits  this  right  to  all  but  her  serfs.  This  broad  door  has 
been  flung  open,  by  which  individuals  may  retreat  and  seek  in  foreign 
lands  that  happiness  and  freedom  denied  them  at  home.  We  will  not, 
surely,  deny  to  sovereign  States  a  franchise  that  may  be  exercised  by 
the  lowest  Dutch  peasant? 

The  right  of  secession  was  capable  of  being  deduced  by  a  clear  pro- 
cess of  reasoning  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But 
that  which  is  the  subject  of  argument,  may  always  be  made  the  subject 
of  doubt.  It  was  doubted;  it  was  denied.  The  whole  North  doubted 
and  denied  your  right  of  secession;  and  such  is  the  perversity  of  the 
human  mind,  many  worthy  people  in  the  South  doubted  too.  What 
was  all  jour  logic  worth  ?  Lot  your  beleagured  capital  and  the  bloody 
plains  of  Manassas  answer  ! 

Rut  there  is  a  living,  breathing  example,  not  yet  embalmed  iu  the 
folios  of  history,  which  I  now  invoke.  Will  the  admirers  and  defenders 
of  the  old  Revolution  forgive  me,  when  I  pronounce  the  name  "of 
Canada,  as  one  of  those  fixed  lights  by  which  we  may  navigate  our 
ship?  The  declaration  has  been  made  by  the  home-government,  that 
whenever  the  Canadians,  by  their  constituted  authorities,  demand  inde- 
pendence, it  shall  without  delay  be  conceded  them.*     They  know  this, 

*  Several  years  ago  \  saw,  in  an  extract  from  a  British  periodical,  a  state- 
ment to  this  effect. 


76  LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER   IN   THE  ARMY. 

feel  this,  and  it  is  this  proud  consciousness  of  freedom  which  unites 
the  Canadas  to  the  British  empire  by  a  magnetism  which  no  other 
power  could  bestow.* 

*  As  a  member  of  the  British  Union,  but  with  a  government  as  republican  as 

that  of  Virginia,   Canada,   notwithstanding  its  rigorous  c  is  thriven 

t i on  and  wealth — partaking,  in  full  measure,  of  the  Btaple 

virtues  of  the  E  i  liberty.     There  is  1 

chanting  picture.  "With  so  kind  ami  indulgent  a  patrol 
Canada,  though  won  by  the  Bword,  appears  to  be  the  especial  favorite  of  Hea- 
ven. Not  Grecian  Helen,  dissolved  in  beauty  and  in  tears,  received  in  her  cap- 
tivity Bach  gentle  usage,  as  this  young  Amazonian  of  the  forest.  Nor  are  there 
any  draw-hacks  upon  the  public  felicity ; — no  foreign  connexions  to  be  main- 
tained, no  army  and  navy  to  absorb  the  wealth  and  destroy  the  liberties  of  the 
nation:  and  win  -    icted  interchange  of  commodities  with 

the  mother  country,  all  the  complicated  arteries  of  her  internal  trade  are 
opened  by  British  capital — an  auriferous  shower  that  enriches  the  region  upon 
Which  it  descends. 

The  Canadians  do  rod,  it  is  true,  elect  a  Governor  General,  but  the  British 
Ministry,  under  the  supervision  of  the  House  of  Commons,  provide  them  with 
a  far  batter  one  than  stump-speaking,  party  conventions  and  universal  suffrage 
would  afford.  The  Governor  General  is,  primarily,  a  gentleman — he  has  ability, 
•social  position,  and  respectable  connexions,  qualifications  not  by  any  means 
always  united  in  our  Presidents.  Such  a  shame  and  imposture  as  Lincoln,  or 
such  an  imbecile  and  obsolete  old  "Greek  and  Roman"  as  Harrison,  could  not 
be  foisted  on  any  one  of  the  nations  constituting  the  golden  chain  of  the  British 
Union.  It  is  a  fixed  and  determinate  policy  with  the  home-government  not  to 
send  a  distasteful  deputy  across  the  Atlantic  to  fret  and  annoy  the  people. 

The  history  of  Canada  Bince  the  victory  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  is  one 
of  the  brightest  and  most  pleasing  pages  in  the  history  of  man,  and  more  gloi  i- 
ous  to  the  British  nation,  than  all  the  captive  multitudes,  princes  and  nobles 
that  ever  graced  the  chariot  of  a  conqueror. 

Our   imp]  f  the    British    system  are   generally  derived    from  our  own 

revolutionary  history,  or  the  partial  essays  of  our  periodical  press;  whilst  we 
do  not  stop  to  consider  the  violent  perturbation  in  the  colonial  system  prodi 
in  the  reign  of  a  Third,  by  effortato  introduce  new  and  despotic  prin- 

ciples, which  were  defeated  by  the  American  Revolution.  That  event  led  to 
the  establishment  of  the  liberal  and  manly  principles  of  Burke.  But  let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  an  actual  revolution,  involving  the  independence  of  the  Ame- 
rican Colonies,  was  necessary  to  defeat  the  Bchemes  of  innovation  patronized  by 
the. Ministry.  A  rigorous  and  determined  and  belligerent  resistance  would 
have  produced  as  v.-  lonmenl  of  that  policy— as  the  rejected   over- 

tores  of  the  British  Crown  positively  establish. 

This  note  is  already  long,  but  to  substantiate  some  of  its  statements,  I  will 
add  the   BU  iven    by  a    British  writer    of  the    advantages  which    Canada 

enjoys  as  a  member  of  the  British  Empire.  "What  essential  privileges"  (de- 
mands this  writer)  "would  the  colonies  command  beyond  those  they  now  enjoy, 
if  they  were  either  independent,  or  a  section  of  the  United  States  of  America.  ? 
How  would  it  affect  their  civil  rights?  They  freely  elect  their  representatives, 
have  thus  a  voice  in  legislation,  are   taxed  by  their  own  consent,  aud  have  a 


LETTERS    TO    AX    OFFICER   IN   THE  ARMY.  77 

Mr.  Calhoun,  in  that  one  of  his  works,  which  will  be  handed  down 
to  remotest  posterity,  very  wisely  says,  that  there  are,  after  all,  but 
two  descriptions  of  government — -.the  one  founded  on  force,  the  other 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed.  I  take  it  that  that  noble  philosopher 
means,  not  only  consent  in  the  origin,  but  consent  in  the  continuance 
of  the  government  j  for  the  same  soul  which  animates  the  infant,  sus- 
tains and  directs  the  man.  I  am  convinced,  sir,  that  after  the  war,  this 
principle  will  be  introduced  in  the  Constitution — for  we  will  not  have 
the  Bourbons  then  to  govern  us. 

Better  than  not  to  proclaim  the  right  of  secession,  or  than  cunningly 
to  leave  it  subject  to  debate,  would  it  be,  to  take  a  step  in  the  opposite 
direction,  and  provide  means  for  the  expulsion  from  the  Confederation 
of  refractory  and  disobedient  members.  Our  Constitution,  then,  would 
rest  on  the  immutable,  christian  principles  of  love  and  attraction,  which 
bind  the  Universe  together  and  support  God's  throne,  instead  of  the 
gross,  heathen  principle  of  coercion. 

"  By  winning  words  to  conquer  willing  hearts, 
And  make  persuasion  do  the  work  of  fear."' 

The  Articles  of  Confederation  asserted  the  sovereignty  of  the  States, 
which  implied  the  right  of  secession,  and  contained  a  provision  in  the 
spirit  of  that  right,  which  might  with  advantage  be  restored  to  life. 
"  Every  Stale,"  it  was  provided,  "shall  always  keep  up  a  regular  and 
well-discipttned  militia,   sufficiently   armed  and  accoutred,  ami  shall 

direct  control  over  all  public  moneys.  Would  they  have  more  in  this  respect  ? 
In  the  exercise  of  their  religion  they  arc  perfectly  free;  all  sects  and  all  deno- 
minations arc  not  only  tolerated,  but  protected.  In  their  Judiciary  they  sit  as 
judges  or  juries,  and  their  lives  and  their  property  are  tlms  in  their  owu  hands. 
Their  laws  are  defined  and  their  burthens  are  extremely  light — indeed,  direct 
taxation  is  almost  unknown,  and,  in  fact,  unnecessary  in  the  colonies.  Tho 
onus  of  their  defence  falls  upon  tbe  mother  country,  and,  although  she  com- 
mon Is  for  this  boon  the  control  of  her  colonial  commerce,  that  control  is  not 
injurious,  since,  by  throwing  open  the  home  markets  to  their  produce,  the  best 
opportunities  and  means  are  probably  thereby  given  to  the  colonists,  for  its  sale. 
They  also  enjoy  several  privileges  in  the  British  markets,  which  they  might  not 
have  in  foreign  ones,  and  it  is  therefore  problematic,  whether  tbe  trade  and 
commerce*  of  those  colonies  would  be  very  materially  improved  by  a  more  ex- 
tended sphere  of  trade,  under  other  circumstances." — Bouchellcs  British  Do- 
minions  in  North  America,  vol.  ii,  p.  246. 

Tbe  following  opinion  of  an  officer  of  the  highest  rank  and  distinction  in  the 
Confederate  army,  is  a  strong  and  valuable  confirmation  of  these  views:  "I 
ider  that  few  people  in  the  world  can  be  more  fortunate  iu  their  government 
than  the  British  Colonics  in  North  America."  General  Joseph  E.  Johnstow,  as 
quoted  iu  "  Three  Months  in  the  Southern  States,"  by  Lieut.  Col.  Freemantlb, 
Coldstream  Guards. 


73  LETTERS   TO   AN   OFFICER    IB   THE   ARMY. 

provide  and  constantly  have  ready  ft  r  use,  in  publi  due  num- 

ber of  field  pieces  and  tents  andproper  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition 
and  camp  equipage." —(Art.  6,  sec.  4.)* 


*  In  addition,  would  it  not  be  well  to  require  of  every  schoolmaster  ami  t he 
tru  i  ire  of  every  college,  to  take  a  license,  conditioned  to  I 

I  ulated   portion   of  the   tactics,  with   the  arithmetic  and   grammar?     We 
have  a   martial    destiny,  and,  surrounded   l>y  powerful    i  II   have  to 

imitate  the  Lacedemonians  and  mould  our  young  men  into  a  warrior  race.  The 
invincible  firmness,  military  discipline  ami  <•  elf-control  of  the  S]  rlted 

all  praise  and  are  worthy  of  our  emulation:  but  we  need  doI  imitate  them  so 
far  as  to  abolish  domestic  life,  introduce  white  slavery  or  iron  money,  or  un- 
mask female  beauty  to  our  martial  youth. 


LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER   IN    THE   ARMY.  79 

/ 


LETTER  XV. 

The  Constitution  of  1787  certainly  deserves  applause  for  its  enumera- 
tion of  granted  powers.  One  of  its  great  faults,  perhaps  its*greatest 
fault,  was  that  it  instituted  no  adequate  securities  against  the  perversion 
of  those  powers  from  the  objects  of  the  grants.  Its  framers  contrived 
what  tbey  hoped  would  be  a  sectional  equilibrium,  but  left  it  to  chance, 
or  rather  to  the  Northern  majority,  which  they  took  care  to  establish  at 
first  in  the  government,  to  determine  to  which*  side  the  balance  should 
incline,  in  the  event  that  the  shifting  equilibrium  should  miscarry.* 
Had  that  plan  succeeded,  it  would  have  changed  the  destiny  of  America; 
population  would  have  covered  the  teeming  South,  and  commerce  would 
have  been  left  free  to  erect  her  emporium  on  the  waters  of  the 
Chesapeake. 

The.  range  of  powers  which  the  Confederate  Government  will  require 
will  be  at  least  equal  to  those  which  it  now  has,  and  a  security  for  their 
discreet  and  patriotic  exercise  may  be  found  in  the  concurrent  majority 
of  two-thirds — a  principle  contained  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation; 
but  to  avoid  evasion,  that  majority  ought  to  be  applied  to  all  cases. "j" 

Craving  your  indulgence  for  having  occupied  so  large  a  portion  of 
your  leisure,  I  will  now  close  these  hurried  letters;  first  observing,  how- 
ever, that  in  this  country,  where  the  political  fabric  rests  so  exclusively 
on  the  htaviDg  billows  of  opinion,  the  unalterable  principles  of  govern- 

*  I  take  the  liberty  again  to  refer  to  "The  Lost  Frinciple ':  for  evidence  of 
the  sectional  equilibrium. 

f  "The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  never  engage  in  a  tfar,  nor 
grant  letters  df  marque  and  reprisals  in  time  of  peace,  nor  enter  into  any  trea- 
ties or  alliances,  nor  eoin  money,  nor  regulate  the  value  thereof,  nor  ascertain 
the  sums  and  expenses  necessary  for  the  defence  and  -welfare  of  the  Urited 
States,  or  any  of  them,  nor  emit  bills,  nor  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States,  nor  appropriate  money,  nor  agree  upon  the  numher  of  vessels  of 
war  to  be  built  or  purchased,  or  the  number  of  land  or  sea  forces  to  be  raised, 
nor  appoint  a  commander-  in-chief  of  the  army  or  navy,  unless  nine  States  assent 
to  the  same,  nor  shall  a  question  on  any  other  point,  except  for  adjourning  from 
day  to  day,  be  determined,  unless  by  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  the  United 
States  in. Congress  assembled." — Art.  Conf.,  Art.  9,  Sec.  6. 

Mr.  Henry  attached  great  value  to  this  provision,  but  he  had  no  confidence  in 
the  adroit  plan  for  balancing  the  sections  contained  in  the  U.  S.  Constitution. 
When  the  latter  was  adopted  by  the  Virginia  Convention  of  1788,  he  said  "the 
balance  of  the  American  Union  is  destroyed,"  and  so  it  proved  to  be. 


80  LETTERS   TO    AN    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY. 

ment,  in  order  that  there  should  have  been  imparted  as  Much  of  fixed- 
le  to  that  fluctuating  basis,  ought,  one  might  suppose,  to 
have  been  taught  in  all  our  seminaries  of  learning,  in  connexion  with 
the  wide  diversity  of  historical  examples.  In  all  other  countries  of  the 
globe,  which  civilized  man  inhabits — certainly  in  most  of  the  Stat 
Christian  Europe — government  fastens  to,  and  is  finally  connect'  i  with 
the  institution  of  property,  and  in  all  is  protected  by  the  sti   I  phy- 

sical barriers.  The  British  Constitution,' after  philosophy  exhausts 
itself,  i-  found  to  owe  no  little  of  its  old  stability  to  these  causes.  But 
the  political  editiccs  of  America,  on  the  permanency  of  which  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  so  many  millions  depeud,  are  made  to  rest 
on  moral  supports  alone.  Exposed  as  they  have  been  to  the  caprice 
of  an  uninstructed,  unfixed,  chameleon  opinion,  they  have  been 
demolished  and  rebuilt,  to  accommodate  at  one  time  the  convenience  of 
certain  influential  characters,  at  another  the  whimsies  of  a  plausible 
philosophy.  In  no  civilized  country  of  modem  times  have  the  elements 
of  a  sound  political  science  been  as  little  attended  to  as  with  us.  How- 
ever strange  this  may  appear,  it  is  yet  emphatically  true.  When  Mr. 
Calhoun's  immortal  essay  appeared,  even  educated  men  were  for  the 
most  part  as  little  informed  as  to  the  proper  basis  of  a  represent 
government  (except  in  so  far  as  they  had  caught  the  scattered  lights 
from  the  speeches  and  conversations  of  that  great  philosopher  and  orator) 
as  they  are  at  the  court  of  an  African  Prince. 

The  truth  is,  sir,  that  government,  as  much  as  chemistry,  or 
mechanics,  or  medicine,  is  an  experimental  science,  and  as  fairly  falls 
within  the  scope  of  the  Baconian  philosophy.  To  call  into  sudden 
existence  a  constitutional  government,  suited  to  a  large  and  wealthy 
community,  would  require  a  full  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  man  and 
his  complex  and  diversified  affairs.  But  what  convention,  unless,  it 
were  a  synod  of  gods,  could  possess  such  wisdom  and  wonderful  attain- 
ments without  the  lights  of  actual  development?  Besides,  impalpable 
and  unseen  forces  are  from  time  to  time  springing  up,  too  subtle  to  be 
grasped,  yet  too  powerful  to  be  resisted,  which  imperatively  demand  a 
renovation  and  re-adaptation  of  the  fundamental  law;  and  it  would  be 
not  more  practicable,  by  mere  intellectual  vigor,  to  devise  such  modi- 
fications as  the  new  wants  of  society  demand,  than  to  originate  a 
well  adapted  government. 

"We  must  not,"  saith  Bacon  "arrogantly  search  for  the  sciences  in 
the  narrow  cells  of  human  wit,  but  humbly  in  the  greater  world.7' 
Until  our  statesmen,  those  leading  spirits,  I  mean,  who  stand  at  the 
helm  in  stormy  weather,  arc  grounded  in  this  primary,  elementary 
truth,  and  with  the  humility  which  always  attends  great  minds,  learn 
to  estimate,  at  their  true  value,  their  own  untried  theories,  as  well  as 


LETTERS    TO   AN    OFFICER    IN   THE   ARMY.  81 

the  reveries  of  others,  comprehending  and  acknowledging  the  feebleness 
of  bur  intellectual  powers  and  the  confined  limits  assigned  them  by  their 
creator,  our  country,  rocked  by  a  continual  tempest,  and  building  first 
on  one  sand-bank  and  then  upon  another,  will  he  the  sport  of  fortune 
and  play-thing  of  revolution.* 

*  To  those  who  would  occupy  themselves  in  the  serious  and  delicate  business 
of  making  or  repairing  a  government,  the  following  weighty  reflections  of  Mr. 
Burke  are  commended:  "Political  arrangement,  as  it  is  a  work  for  social 
ends,  is  to  be  only  wrought  by  social  means.  There  mind  must  conspire  with 
miud.  Time  is  required  to  produce  that  union  of  minds  which  alone  can  pro- 
duce all  the  good  wc  aim  at.  Our  patience  will  achieve  more  than  our  force. 
If  I  might  venture  to  appeal  to  what  is  so  much  out  of  fashion  in  Paris,  I  mean  to 
experience,  I  should  tell  you  that  in  my  course  I  have  known,  and,  according  to 
my  measure,  have  co-operated  with  great  men ;  and  I  have  never  yet  seen  any 
plan  which  has  not  been  mended  by  the  observations  of  those  who  have  been 
much  inferior  in  understanding  to  the  person  who  took  the  lead  in  the  business. 
By  a  slow  but  well-sustained  progress,  the  effect  of  each  step  is  watched  ;  the 
good  or  ill  success  of  the  first  gives  light  to  us  in  the  second  ;  and  so  from  light 
to  light  we  are  conducted  with  safety  through  the  whole  scries.  We  see  th'it  the 
parts  of  the  system  do  not  clash.  The  evils  latent  in  the  most  promising  contri- 
vances are  provided  for  as  they  arise.  One  advantage  is  as  little  as  possible 
sacrificed  to  another.  We  compensate,  we  reconcile,  we  balance.  We  are  able 
to  unite  into  a  consistent  whole  the  various  anomalies  and  contending  principles 
that  are  found  in  the  minds  and  affairs  of  men.  From  hence  arise  not  an  excel- 
lence in  simplicity,  but  one  far  superior — an  excellence  in  composition.  Where 
the  great  interests  of  mankind  are  concerned  through  along  succession  of  gene- 
rations, that  succession  ought  to  be  admitted  to  some  share  in  the  councils  which 
are  so  deeply  to  affect  them.  If  justice  requires  this,  the  work  itself  requires  the 
aid  of  more  minds  than  one  age.  can  furnish.  It  is  from  this  view  of  things  that 
the  best  legislators  have  been  often  satisfied  with  the  establishment  of  some 
sure,  solid,  and  ruling  principle  in  government;  the  power  like  that  which 
some  of  the  philosophers  have  called  a  plastick  nature;  and  having  fixed  the 
principle,  they  have  left  it  afterwards  to  its  own  operation.  To  proceed  in  this 
manner,  that  is,  to  proceed  with  a  presiding  principle,  and  a  prolifick  energy,  is 
with  me  the  criterion  of  profound  wisdom.  What  your  politicians  think  the 
marks  of  a  bold,  hardy  genius,  are  only  proofs  of  a  deplorable  want  of  ability. 
By  their  violent  haste  and  their  defiance  of  the  process  of  nature,  they  are 
delivered  over  blindly  to  every  projector  and  adventurer,  to  every  alchymist 
and  empirick.  They  despair  of  turning  to  account  anything  that  is  common." — 
Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France. 

These  reflections  of  Mr.  Burke,  so  forcibly  pointing  out  the  difficulties  of  the 
science  of  government,  are  well  fitted  to  introduce  the  question,  whether  it 
would  not  be  sound  policy  to  establish  a  Professorship  at  the  University  of 
Virginia  devoted  to  that  science  alone.  When  I  knew  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  attention  given  to  this  study  was  little  enough  !  The  numbers  of  the 
Federalist  and  the  Resolutions  and  Report  of  '98,  administered,  I  suppose,  as 
antidotes  to  each  other,  about  constituted  the  course.  '  Under  the  recent  able 
and  brilliant  professorship  of  Mr.  Holcombe,  the  subject  of  Government  received 

6 


82  LETTERS    TO    AN    OFFICER    IN    TttE   AR5PT. 

I  have  been  informed,  a  fuller  development;  but  even  with  him  it  was  but  an 
appendage  to  the  law  ticket,  enough  of  itself  to  occupy  the  time  and  thoughts 
of  a  single  professor.  Government,  in  its  own  nature,  has  no  stronger  con- 
nections with  the  law  than  with  other  branches  of  knowledge.  It  is  entitled, 
from  its  great  importance,  to  a  separate  professorship,  and  that  its  benefits 
might  be  widely  diffused,  it  ought  to  take  its  plac«  in  the  accademical  course. 


*H^**" 


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\  .     MOBEIS, 

RICHMOND,        -V-A-- 

m 

KnutJMttioM  fat*  fiM  J^vtiUers; 

Compiled  from  8  iy  Authority;  embra< 

Battery,  and   Battalion  or  Evolutions  of   Rati 

by  Major  A.  W. 
Secretary  of  War. 

RECOMMENDATIOISTS. 
Head  Quarters  Dj 

I  deem  this  work  useful  and  necessary  to   the  Artillery  se 
recommend  its  immediate  publiaatiou. 

It  should  be  published  at  a  low  price  (cheap  edition 
reach  of  every  Artillery  Officer. 

Verr  respect  fully, 

ARNOLD  EL5 

Approved  and  respectfully  recommend  to  the  favoi 
etary  of  War. 

•  A<ljt 

November  19,  1  * 

—  ALSO  —  V 

GENERAL  ORDER3  from  the  Adjutant  and  Inspector- 
General's  Office,  C.  S.  A-,  for  the  Year  1863; 
with  an  Analytical  Inde 

CONFEDERATE  S 
War  Department,  An 

Rich  m 

The  following   Analytical   Index  of   Gclle'ral   Ordei 
for  the   year  1803.  has   been  prepared  Mmh":  my  authority  by  Mr.  i 
t0ig  Office    and  i    believed  to  be  complete* 

.- 
8®- Orders  will  meet   with  prompt  attention, 4f-  address* 

A.  MORRIS, 

Rich 


